Merak, one of the remote Gewogs in Trashigang has seen a lot of changes in the recent years. What was once thought to be an isolated place is now just few hours walk from the nearest road point. The living standard of the people, along with its sanitation has also improved over the years. But waste management is still a major challenge. Streams nearby the village are flooded with home-generated wastes. It has become an eyesore to otherwise a very calm and pristine environment.
“Waste management is a challenge for us,” agrees the Gup, Ghayden. He said people were not disposing garbage in the identified places. “We have been asking people to dump their waste in the identified waste disposal area. We have also told the people about the penalties, if they are found throwing waste in the streams and rivers. But they are not listening to us.”
Advocacy programmes on waste management have been carried out but it has failed to keep the nearby streams clean. Merak community primary school conducts awareness programmes and cleaning campaigns annually, but has not been successful in changing the mindset of the people. “Last year, we organised an awareness campaign, educating people and telling them how to manage their waste. We also cleaned the nearby streams for a whole day,” said the Principal Tashi, adding that despite their effort they could not make much impact since people were not much aware of waste management.
The Gewog administration also co-ordinates a community-cleaning campaign once every month. But the response from the public has been poor according to the Gewog officials. The Gewog has now come up with a new initiative to discourage people from dumping waste in the streams.
“Starting this year, we have started collecting waste from individual houses at the waste disposal site. The Tshogpas including myself are also looking at the quantity of waste to make sure they bring all their waste to disposal site. The system has been going on for about two months,” said the Gup, Ghayden.
With the new initiative, the Gewog hopes to address the waste management issue. With the Gewog now opened for tourists, people say the issue of waste management is expected get worst if not addressed on time.
