The monsoon came at a heavy price for the Dorokha Dungkhag in Samtse this year. Incessant rainfall throughout the monsoon season caused several landslides costing the dungkhag dearly. The dungkhag says the monsoon that also claimed six lives was like never before.
A grandmother and her granddaughter were buried along with their house by a landslide. In another incident, three men were crushed inside an excavator by falling boulders at a roadside. Another man was killed when a landslide buried him as he was herding his cows. These were the lives lost to this year’s monsoon in Dorokha. Apart from that, almost Nu 16 M worth of property including farm roads have been damaged.
“The farm roads have been severely impacted. Apart from that, in some gewogs, drinking water source has been washed away entirely. It was a nightmare. Farm roads and small bridges connecting them could not withstand the landslides,” shares Karma Jurmi, Sr Dungpa for Dorokha Dungkhag in Samtse.
The dungkhag, which boasts of its biogas productivity, also lost one of its expert biogas masons to the incessant summer rainfall.
“We lost him but he has trained others so, there are who can do works like him. But it will be hard for us to get a person with dedication and expertise like him,” he added.
The late mason had his hand in almost all the biogas digesters constructed in the dungkhag.
However, the dungkhag in an effort to help mitigate such disasters have been informing people about the dangers of monsoon. It also has trained disaster search and rescue teams in the dungkhag and at the gewog levels.
Sherub Dorji
