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The Municipal Services Office (MSO) will be setting up an experiential space for Singaporeans to appreciate better how the noise they make in their flats might affect their neighbours.

"Inter-floor noise is a major category of neighbour noise feedback in our dense, high-rise environment," said Senior Minister of State for National Development Sim Ann during the Committee of Supply debates on Mar. 2.

Unfortunately due to the subjective and speculative nature of such feedback — "as a community, we are none the wiser on exactly what transpired," said Sim, who oversees the MSO.

The experiential space aims to alleviate the situation by allowing visitors to test first-hand how different actions create different decibel noise levels and to challenge their perception of the directions in which noise may travel.

"Visitors can also look forward to learning about actions to adopt to effectively reduce their noise impact on their neighbours," said Sim.

She added that the MSO hoped to open the experiential space to the public in the second half of the year.

Weaponised noise

The Senior Minister of State also addressed noise that may be created with more malicious intent, responding to a question from People's Action Party Member of Parliament Henry Kwek.

Sim acknowledged that there were a "small set of severe cases" where conflict over noise disturbances had become "entrenched and acrimonious".

"Often there are signs that at least one of the conflicting parties purposely weaponises noise to cause suffering to their neighbours over a prolonged period. We think this is wrong and that strong actions are needed to put a stop to this."

For conflicts that require government intervention, Sim announced that MSO will pilot a unit of dedicated personnel.

"They will leverage stronger laws, such as mandating mediation under the enhanced CDMF (Community Dispute Management Framework), and actively work with affected parties to bring serious cases that are beyond self-help towards solution," she said.

Sim was quick to stress that this dedicated unit was not meant to be the first resort of neighbourly conflict resolution — lest it "weaken the kampung spirit over time".

"Having government personnel stepping in to resolve differences between neighbours all the time is neither desirable nor sustainable," she also said.

She added that the unit will eventually be vested with appropriate powers and "use them sparingly but effectively".

"These include powers of investigation and to require nuisance makers to stop certain behaviours pending mediation of the dispute."

Top image from Danist Soh via Unsplash and Xia Yang via Unsplash