Sewage pipes and septic tanks are leaking. Many of the drains are clogged with sewage. Clearly an eyesore but what is unbearable is the stench from it. This is a harsh reality in Khuruthang town in Punakha. Lack of proper sewage system is turning the town into an unhygienic place to live in, some of the residents told our reporter, Choni Dema.
All these are being blamed on lack of sewerage system.
Khuruthang residents are frustrated. They say the problem is not new. It’s been there for years now, getting worse year after year. And now, the residents say their patience is running thin.
“It is so dirty that customers spit as they come and go,” says Raj Kumari, a meat shop owner. “I clean the surroundings twice every day but it doesn’t help. We have reported to the municipal office as well as the building owner but they are doing nothing, so now I have stopped telling them.”
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Another shopkeeper, Dawa Gyeltshen, says some residents leave their septic tanks open at night to empty it.
“It’s difficult to even walk by. And the smell is so strong,” says a passerby.
The Municipal Office is under fire from the residents. They say the office is dragging its feet on it. But the Municipal Office says it is handicapped. Lack of budget is preventing it from constructing a sewage treatment plant.
“We need to construct, firstly, the sewage treatment plantand, secondly, we need to have sewerage network, so that every septic tank will be connected to the network and it will be carried out to the sewerage treatment plant .
“Earlier also, the municipal engineer proposed in the 10th Five Year Plan and RGoB could not afford since it was a huge amount. Again in 11th Five Year Plan, I proposed still did not get through. Now we have already put up proposal to GNHC. The amount is Nu. 50 million,” says the Engineer, Aiman Limbu.
The Municipal Engineer says once the budget is through, a sewage plant will be constructed on a fifty decimal land below Khuruthang town.
