Considering Bhutan’s geographical location and its vulnerability to disasters such as earthquake and windstorms, it is critical to build structures that are resilient to such disasters. The Ministry of Works and Human Settlement (MoWHS) with financial support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) conducted a four-day training on disaster-resilient house construction in Tsirang Toed Gewog in Tsirang last week.
Some 70 participants consisting of masons, artisans, community members from Dagana and Tsirang, Tarayana field officials from 10 dzongkhags took part in the training.
Ministry of Works and Human Settlement is facilitating the training phase-wise in every dzongkhag. In the first phase training on stonemasonry was conducted for 20 dzongkhags. In the second phase, the ministry has facilitated training for five dzongkhags so far.
“At the dzongkhag level, we are including all the gewog leaders including gups, mangmis, and tshogpas from along with the dzongkhag engineers. This is because they are the approving authorities for rural house constructions. So they can easily disseminate such knowledge to everybody in the village,” said Yadav Lal Bhattorai, an Engineer with the MoWHS.
The training was initiated by the Tarayana Foundation as it plans to help construct more than 100 houses in Tsirang and Dagana.
“There are many houses affected by earthquake and windstorm. So keeping that in mind the Tarayana Foundation will help construct houses that are disaster-resilient,” said Namgay, Field officer from the Tarayana Foundation.
For the participants, the training was felt timely as they are yet to begin constructing houses.
“With support from the Tarayana Foundation, we will soon be constructing houses. Therefore the training is just in time. We learned ample lessons on constructing disaster-resilient houses. Now we can guide and monitor the carpenters and masons so they maintain quality while constructing houses,” added Pema Lhamo from Dagana.
The Tarayana field officers from the 10 dzongkhags will be conducting similar training in their jurisdiction.
Namgay Wangchuk
