All buildings in Thimphu city have been ordered to paint their roofs red and green by the end of the year or pay a hefty fine. The decision, according to the Thromde, is for the city’s aesthetics and for environmental reasons. Meanwhile, this arrangement has not gone well with the residents.
The Thromde has given till the end of December to complete the roof paintings.
All residential and commercial buildings in the city will need to have their roofs painted green, while government and institutional buildings should have red roofs.
Failure to do so will be penalized with a fine of Nu 50,000, the Thromde stated through a notification on 10th August.
The notice also mentions that the decision on the roof paint colours was decided and notified in October of last year but that inspections could not be carried out due to the COVID situation.
BBS tried to get more details from the Thromde office and we were told to follow their media protocol which is to send them the questions through email. We did that and we were told it is for two purposes.
The first one is to make the city look more beautiful and the second one is due to environmental reasons. They said the heat reflected from the roofs has a direct impact on the environment.
Meanwhile, the people are not very keen on the notice.
As soon as the notification was posted on Thromde’s Facebook page, it was flooded with comments criticizing the decision.
One person said it was unnecessary and that the Thromde should instead focus on improving the water supply and other amenities in the city.
Another said that focus should be given to more pressing issues such as cleanliness and sewage.
One commenter said it would cost a huge amount of money.
An environmentalist who asked not to be named said painting the roofs with any colour will not have any benefit or impact on the environment.
Pema Seldon Tshering
Edited by Yeshi Gyaltshen
