The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Waterkeeper Alliance, one of the largest and fastest growing non-profit organizations based in New York, partnered with Clean Bhutan Organization to work toward ensuring clean water in the country by maintaining drinkable and swimmable water everywhere.
Waterkeeper Alliance officials held a three-day training program on water quality monitoring for local waterkeepers, and for staff of the National Environment Commission and National Centre for Hydrology and Meteorology. They were taught to use the equipment by marking correct readings.
Clean Bhutan along with officials from National Environment Commission, National Centre for Hydrology and Meteorology were assisted by the Waterkeeper alliance team in collecting water samples from Wang chhu with the baseline as Dodhena, followed by areas along Dechencholing, below the Dechen Zam near Lingkana, and then along the Centenary Farmers Market and Centennial Park.
Tests will be done on the Pa-Chu river in Paro as well.
Team Clean Bhutan will carry out the test on the total coliform bacteria and e-coli content in the river from the samples. Other specifications such as temperature, pH, turbidity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate and phosphate are automatically recorded by the advanced water testing equipment donated by the Waterkeeper Alliance to Clean Bhutan.
Today, Waterkeeper Alliance declares that it unites more than 300 Waterkeeper Organizations and Affiliates that are on the frontlines of the global water crisis, patrolling and protecting more than 2.5 million square miles of rivers, lakes and coastal waterways on six continents and ensures that the world’s Waterkeeper Organizations and Affiliates are as connected to each other as they are to their local waters, organizing the fight for clean water into a coordinated global movement.
“Every day around the world, polluters are poisoning our waterways, and people everywhere are suffering the consequences. When a coal company discharges millions of gallons of toxic coal ash into a river, families who depend on that waterway as a drinking-water source are the innocent victims,” states the Waterkeeper Alliance in their annual issue. “When a developer demolishes a forest of mangroves, it destroys fisheries and devastates the local economy. When hog farms dump untreated waste into a waterway, people and marine life get sick. These are just a few examples of the battles that Waterkeeper Alliance fights every day around the world on behalf of the common good and to protect everyone’s right to clean water.”
The reports from the water samples collected will be directly submitted to the government. It has been learned that the previous reports were also submitted the government which resulted in the cleaning and adoption of various streams and rivers in the capital.
