The Bhutanese Leading the way.
A week long cleaning campaigning organized by the Greener Way, which concluded on Wednesday, saw tremendous support from around 1000 volunteers.
The volunteers begin their cleaning campaign from Babesa and touched every part of Thimphu, going up till the extreme north till Taba.
The Greener Way proprietor, Karma Yonten said, the main aim and objective of organizing such a cleaning campaign is to comb the entire city of dirt and to give a good feeling of living in a wonderful environment.
“The volunteers were very cooperative and supported us a lot in our mass cleaning campaign and so we could collect trash of up to two DCM each day,” he said.
Greener Way received support of volunteers from government services, private and corporate employees, University graduates, students from Thimphu, RBP and volunteers from RBA Amtsho or Women’s Tshogpa.
Kinley, an official with (RBA) Tensung Amtsho Phendhey Tshogpa said, “The Cleaning campaign was successful but I am worried and not satisfied with it”.
In the first two days, 40 ladies cleaned places from Shearee Square, Central plaza, Changjalu and places around Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) and joined other groups in the remaining days.
“While we enjoyed the task of cleaning, it was a tedious job to clean waste around the buildings, drains and footpaths, specially the waste that are rotten and filled with maggots and gives foul smell, “she said.
Despite those challenges, they joined hands to insure that the city looks clean and neat but then again places where seen littered around within one or two days.
She said, the mindset of the people must change and make the best use of the basic amenities that are available like dumping of waste in proper area and dumping it on time when the waste collector vehicle comes in the respective places.
She pointed out that the Thromde must do something in monitoring the waste, because if there are no strict rules and regulation in place and such trend of people throwing waste in any place continues, then there are fewer chances of people coming forward to volunteer in the future.
Tandin, an official of National Pension and Provident Fund (NPPF), who took part in the cleaning campaign for one day said, it was a weeklong cleaning campaign and it was a huge success.
“In the one day that I volunteered, it was quite interesting to work with people from all walks of life and it was a good experience, together we collected about 200-300 bags of waste and it was quite satisfactory,” he said.
Sangay, a University graduate, who took part in the weeklong cleaning campaign, said staying at home would just be a waste of his time and energy. “I took part thinking if I could contribute to the society even through small ways in maintaining clean environment,” he said.
The weeklong cleaning campaign has been a success and it worked out well with the effort put forward by the 1000 volunteers that took part in it.
The cleaning campaign not only promoted a sense of voluntarism but it also passed on the message of sense of ownership and responsibility.
