The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The one month’s notice given to the Thimphu Thromde to clear up the soil dumped between the sewerage plant and the Greener Way dumpsite at Babesa is close to expiry but no action was taken.
The National Environment Commission (NEC) will step in as the competent authority in a few days.
On June 15, The Bhutanese reported on the NEC’s letter to Thimphu Thromde to seek the reasons as to why the soil dumping was approved. Close to 200 truckloads of soil was dumped into the Thimchhu. The soil encroached 20 meters into the river disturbing the whole course of the river.
The Thromde officials also accepted it was illegal dumping. It came to light that the permission was given by the Thrompon to a relative of Babesa Thuemi, Namgay Tshering.
An environment officer with the Thromde said that they always discouraged people to dump soil into the river by allocating dumpsites for those who request for such activities. According to him, as quoted earlier, most of the people complied with it and if there is someone dumping in the river, then it was not acceptable for them.
According to an NEC official, first the number of truck loads would be assessed and then a fine of Nu 9,000 amounting to Nu 1,800,000 (for 200 truckloads) will be imposed on the Thromde.
He also said other applications from the Thromde will be kept on hold. “If they do not listen, the matter will be taken to court,” added the official.
A Thromde official said that the message on the letter from NEC was passed on to the Thuemi. “In case there are any questions, he told us to direct it to him,” said the official.
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I wonder where the NEC was sleeping when the govt dumped thousands of trucks into Thimchhu to build the centenary children’s park and the new rifle shooting gallery in Langjophakha (opp of India House near the bridge)??
NEC seems to have a sleep disorder waking up only only occasionally and making a lot of noise before going back to sleep.
What about reckless dumping of sand and boulders to below the road damaging the trees/pristine environment during the widening the National highway by DANTAK/BRO.Is it ethical to dump all those boulders and turning the green into brownish/dark rediish land escape.Common NEC stop sleeping and avoid this blunder.Nowhere i have seen technically that widening the highway at the cost of pristine environment dumping those boulders and sand debris and polluting the precious environment and river.Please intervene and discuss with Dantak/BRO to avoid environmental Disaster.It is high time we take over our Road and maintain by ourselves.We want to have best road which is to be constructed by Bhutanese National to reduce external dependence and non compliance of NEC standard by DANTAK/BRO.