Over the last decade, Addis Abeba has improved beyond recognition, with a developed road network, more efficient garbage disposal and urban cleaning systems, better connectivity (although there is still a long way to go), more modern buildings, and improved services in terms of hotels, shops, and restaurants. Only in one respect has no progress been made - noise pollution. Rather, it has gone backwards, the problem has become worse.

When it comes to noise, the biggest polluters are the religious institutions, and the biggest offender is, by far, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. I know people also complain about being woken up at 5:00am by the mosques’ call to prayer, but at least we can get back to sleep afterwards, whereas once the Orthodox Church kicks off at 4:30am, it will keep going for the next five hours.

Then there are the sermons, particularly in the evenings, when children might be doing homework, or adults unwinding after a day’s work. Generally, the preferred mode of delivery is an angry, hectoring rant.

“It is not about praising God, but about scolding people,” an elderly (Orthodox) neighbour once remarked to me.

Religious noise pollution, delivered by ever more powerful speakers and sound systems, is the elephant in the room. No one, with the exception of a few journalists (special mention here to Solomon Shumiye, of “Shai Bunna”), wants to acknowledge it openly. The irony is that virtually everyone, even the devout Orthodox, are against it. I have never met someone who said, “Yes, it is great to be woken up and kept awake all night by religious loudspeakers!”

Bring up the topic at any gathering, and everyone has a tale to tell of how they suffer from it. Yet, ask them why they do not complain, and they look at you as if you were crazy. Most citizens, including foreigners, whether residents, tourists, businesspeople, or investors say, “Enough is enough! It is time the government did something about this!”

Parliament passed the noise pollution problem to the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), asking it to come up with a policy and guidelines appropriate to the Ethiopian context (code for “get the religious institutions to cut down the noise from their loudspeakers.”) However, the EPA does not want to take on the churches and mosques, so nothing has happened.

The excuse for inaction is usually, “we know it is a problem, but there are more important things to tackle, such as poverty reduction and the struggle for development.” This is on a par with saying, “we should not try to enforce the wearing of seatbelts until we have eradicated female genital mutilation.” Tackling one does not preclude tackling the other; governments always engage in multitasking.

Another excuse is, “now is not the right time to take on the churches and mosques.” Actually, there could not be a better time, as the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has just won overwhelmingly at the polls, and has the clear authority to tell the religious institutions that it is instituting noise regulations to protect the health and wellbeing of citizens. This would be in line with international norms, and particularly in the case of Addis Abeba, in keeping with its status as the diplomatic capital of Africa.

Noise pollution is anti development. It creates no go zones around churches for hotel and property developers; damages the business of existing hotels; lowers the value of property in the worst affected areas; and sends out a totally false message to foreign visitors, whether tourists or investors, that Ethiopians are religious fanatics.

Tourists who had driven down to Ethiopia through Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Sudan told me they had never experienced anything like Ethiopia on a Sunday morning where they had been kept awake all night.

Noise damages people’s health. It is scientifically acknowledged to cause stress, cardiac problems, and headaches. To perform properly, whether at work or at school, people need a proper night’s sleep, the lack of which can be life threatening in some professions.

A prominent neurosurgeon once told of how he went into the operating theatre at 6:00am one morning, totally exhausted, having been kept awake all night by church loudspeakers. Think of what not being fully alert after a good night’s sleep means for a bus driver with 50 passengers, or the pilot of a plane.

Noise pollution is also anti peace. Ethiopia rightly prides itself on the harmony that has long existed among followers of different faiths in the country. That harmony is now threatened, as events over the last decade in Mekele, Awassa, Jimma, and other places bear witness - with people killed, and places of worship torched. Here in Addis Abeba, there have been several clashes - one in the Bole Michael area between Muslims and Pentecostals necessitated the intervention of the Federal Police.

The spark for these clashes has always been noise. Forcing people, within a radius of several square kilometres, to listen to a religious service for several hours that many may not subscribe to, and waking them up in the process, does not show respect for other faiths, but contempt. It is an abuse of the religious freedom afforded to the various religions in the country by the victory of the EPRDF over the Derg.

Ethiopia’s enemies (hint, think of countries beginning with the letter “E”), must be happy with this development, threatening as it does the very social fabric of the nation, and have probably been donating loudspeaker systems to religious institutions around the country.

The solution to this problem can only come from the federal government, and from the EPRDF as the ruling party. This responsibility should not be handed down to some other agency or city administration which will only sit on its hands and prevaricate. Clear instructions must be given.

Speakers in places of worship should be directed into the compound of the institution in question, not outwards. The decibel output should not exceed levels dangerous to public health, and at night, should not be sufficiently loud to wake people who live in the area, up. Should this happen, there can only be winners, not losers. Harmony can be restored, followers of different faiths can live side by side, their beliefs a matter of personal commitment, not something rammed down their neighbours’ throats or ears.

Christianity and Islam in Ethiopia have survived and flourished without loudspeakers for 1,660 and 1,370 years, respectively - from the date of their appearance in the country to the fall of the Derg. In this case, as Ethiopia enters its third millennium, there are clear lessons to be learned from the past.