Haa district is yet to have a proper waste management strategy in its gewogs. Though the municipal’s only garbage truck collects waste from Haa town and settlements along the highway, most villages are left behind. This is leading to the illegal dumping of waste.
At Puduna village in Samar Gewog, waste can be seen dumped along the riverbanks. The forest behind the village has now become heavily polluted as well. There is no proper waste disposal facility nearby.
“Even if people store the waste in sacks, as there is no waste collection service here, people end up dumping them in rivers and forests. This is damaging the environment. It would help if the garbage truck collects waste from our village as well,” said Yeshi Wangchuk, Jenkana-Puduna Tshogpa.
People in other far-flung villages are also experiencing similar issues.
“About a year ago, the district administration asked us to manage our waste properly and store them in sacks so that the garbage truck would come and collect them. The truck came only two to three times. Since then, the truck has never come to our village. As of now, we use private vehicles to transport waste. I do that when I go to Haa town as the disposal site at Anakha is on the way. But people without private cars have no options,” said Chencho, a resident of Dorikha.
“My chiwog is quite far from the highway and located on a hilltop. So, it’s beyond the reach of the garbage truck. That’s why people either dump waste in forests or keep them stockpiled in front of their homes. The landfill is quite far and not many people own cars here,” said Dorji Wangmo, Pajekha-Sangkiri Tshogpa.
In some villages such as Dorikha and Shari, there is another problem. People travelling to Samtse and Thimphu reportedly bringing waste in cars and dumping them along the road is becoming an issue.
“The Samtse-Haa secondary national highway runs right through our village, so people bring waste and dump them along the highway. Right now the snow has covered all the waste and is hardly visible; otherwise, the highway is heavily littered. If this keeps happening, we worry that it is going to affect our village in the future,” added Chencho.
The Principal Engineer of the Haa Municipal Office, Sangay Dakpa, said the municipal office is only mandated to collect waste from Haa town. But the office is also gathering waste along the Haa-Thimphu highway from some parts of Katsho Gewog to Jenkana in Samar Gewog.
He also said a new waste disposal site will be constructed at Anakha in July below the current landfill. The lifespan of the current landfill expired in 2016. However, there are no plans to purchase additional garbage trucks.
The District Environment officer said there are plans to set up at least five waste collection facilities in every gewog through the Waste Management and Dog Population Flagship Programme. The programme’s blueprint document also says waste collection vehicles will also be made available in all the gewogs and urban areas in the country.
For now, until the plans materialise, it seems people in the villages will continue dumping their wastes illegally.
Kipchu, Haa
