The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Lobneykha community in Chapcha gewog has privately funded the construction of more than one-kilometer road that took over two months to complete, from August- October 2014. The road extends from the end of village until Gensakha lhakhang.
Community coordinator Kado Dukpa, said the decision to construct the road to the lhakhang was made in a community meeting as it was difficult for the villagers to reach the lhakhang with goods, especially when many rituals had to be performed annually.
“Also it was difficult for the old people to go and attend the rituals because they had to walk until the lhakhang. They also can’t visit the lhakhang frequently because they have a tough time walking,” Kado Dukpa said.
Prior to the road construction, the community had to get the approval of the Chukha Dzongda, and complete all the necessary inspections, such as land survey, environment and forest clearance. Dawa Tshering Construction sponsored the machines for the road construction and a fuel budget of more than Nu 400,000 was collected from the community.
“All the necessary work was done with the help of the villagers, whereby one person from every household contributed 10 days of voluntary manual labour. I can proudly say that it was a great success and it was possible with the community cooperation,” the community coordinator added.
He said that there were no major challenges or difficulties faced during the construction. “I was worried of the monsoon rainfall and that the villagers won’t come for a work, but just the opposite happened. There were no frequent rainfall and the villagers were cooperative,” he said.
The villagers are now happy because they do not face any difficulty in transporting the things needed in the lhakhang. An elderly grandmother, Logum, said it has now become easy for her to visit the lhakhang to pray and carry out the rituals.
