Most of the wastes are not segregated at source and lacks proper infrastructure for waste management system in the country. This is because of lack of regulation and by-laws, lack of coordination among the sectors and poor awareness. However this will not be a problem anymore. The Waste Regulation, 2012, under the Waste Prevention and Management Act of 2009 is now drafted, and will be strictly implemented and monitored throughout the country.
The National Environment Commission will monitor the compliance performance of the implementing agencies. The Royal Bhutan Police will assist the implementing agencies to achieve full compliance under this regulation.
At the Dzongkhag level, Dzongdag will be the overall monitoring authority within his jurisdiction while the Dungpa, Gup, Mangmi, Divisional forest officer, Park managers and institutional heads will be the implementing agencies.
According to the Secretary, Dr. Ugyen Tshewang of the NEC, regulations will describe the procedures, the guidelines and the implementing agency’s roles and responsibilities and their accountability, -how to play their roles and how they will fulfill their mandate of their respective agencies in terms of collection of their waste, in terms of transportation. “We are also going to levy on service charge, fees, we are going to have private-partnership in terms of transportation and there will be fines for no compliance of the regulation.”
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the Thimphu Thromde, Minjur Dorji,said until now, the implementation of the Act has been ineffective because of the absence of a regulation. “It will be very difficult if implementing agencies like Thimphu Thromde has to look after all the waste. I think there has to be partnership and support from other agencies and in the present act it clearly says different ministries, CSOs, NGOs are also responsible and should be part of overall waste management.” He added that it made Thromde’s roles and responsible more clearer and would definitely help in implementing waste rules and regulations.
