Any
Bhutanese, young or old, in any part of the world would not conclude their description
on Bhutan without making a mention of our pristine environment. Such is the degree
of pride and precedence that we set over our lush green environment
More so, it’s
introduced as module in schools and spelt out as one of the pillars of GNH to depict
how indispensable it is to Bhutanese. Various legislations and acts are also put
in place to accentuate its importance.
Geographically,
we are sandwiched between two of world giants but what keep us unparalleled and
known to rest of the world is because of our green gold. Since long time back,
Bhutanese have maintained intimate connection and revered environment as source
of life. His majesty the fourth king was awarded with prestigious champion of
the earth medal in 2005 for his tireless stewardship towards environment.
Today,
as the country strides forward, one challenge that we confront is waste
management. With mushrooming number of population, the problem is getting uglier
to our sight day by day. However, at individual level, if we do our own part
the problems can be trimmed to a large extent.
Walking
in the footstep of Ap Bokto is one way of playing our part- be a responsible
citizen.
On
18th April, there was a mass cleaning campaign marathon. Hundreds of
Ap Bokto gathered to clean up the litters which were scattered all over. Majority
of trashes were plastics from junk food while few constituted sanitary pads
dumped so irresponsibly. However, we did our share- picking up junks, cutting
grasses and clearing drains. It almost consumed six hours.
Now
what’s worrying is that the toil of six hours could be beaten within seconds,
if it is not for the collective efforts from all individuals. So, everyone
should be held responsible. It would, of course, be more effective with strict
surveillance from municipal’s side at least twice in a month along with
appropriate interventions, say like levying fines, from dzongkhags’ side to
taper off the waste issues. Otherwise, as stated above, investment of 6 hours
would go fruitless. Moreover, if parents can curtail buying junk foods to their
children, there would not surface any need for extra cleaning campaign.
The
only grievance over the cleaning campaign was the insufficiency of tractors.
When we could clean huge span of area, they weren't able to supply at least two
waste collector tractors. Even the one delivered came only once that failed to
accommodate the wastes. Thereafter, it went out of sight.
Anyway
for next round of cleaning, it was a take home message that sufficient tractors
be supplied and if not, a truck to house enough wastes so that work proceeds
gracefully without any friction in between.
As
school constitutes the larger segment, few mull over that the school should
spearhead programs of such kind, as if the tradition was passed down since time
immemorial. How can we conceive the idea of clean environment when it is lone
school versus large communities around? It is high time that we change our
mindset and accept it as everyone’s liability because we believe each one of us
are custodian of clean Bhutan.
Let
us be reminded of Ap Boktos’ message before waiting for school to come and
clean. Together, we can promote brand Bhutan go clean and green.