Thrompon says the community has to do better with littering 

Chhimi Dema

With drains clogged, the rainwater mixed with effluents such as oils, grease, detergents and paints run over the Olakha workshop road in Thimphu often flooding nearby workshops.

The workshop operators say the stench of sewage exposing faeces runs though the road on rainy days. With the onset of monsoon, the situation is likely to worsen with more heavy rains.

A member of Thimphu Automobile Tshogpa (TAT) said that the drains that are in place do not have an exit and so it overflows on to the road.

Thrompon Kinlay Dorjee said, “We have done our best to improve the infrastructure in the workshop area.”

An audit report by the Royal Audit Authority (RAA) pointed out that the Thromde wasted Nu 432,632 because the newly constructed roads and drainage were damaged in the Olakha automobile workshop area.

Thromde officials’ response to RAA audit report on the drainage says that for those drain construction that passes through private land, the owners divert the water on the road.

Drains in place are littered with pet bottles, plastics and papers.

Thrompon Kinlay Dorjee said that the workshop owners could take care of the public property. “They could initiate efforts to clean the clogged drains and then avoid littering.”

Bog formed by automobile fluid waste is littered with shoes, pet bottles, paint cans, papers and plastics covered in black grease on the outskirt of the workshop near Olarongchu.

Some workshop owners store the automobile fluids which are then sent to be recycled. Workshop owner Tshering Dorji said, “Since we do not have a proper system in place, some do not care to store it.”

Waste disposal is seen as another issue in the workshop area. A workshop owner said that some of them are not mindful of their garbage and dispose as they please.

Despite thromde garbage truck collecting waste twice a week, kitchen waste, torn clothes, old shoes, plastic bags, food wrappers and pet bottles are disposed near Olarongchu.

People complain that the road damages their car hitting potholes and dusts said a member of TAT.  RAA reports that granular sub-base that has been laid in 2018 were “found completely worn out”.

Since water damaged the blacktop roads, plain cement concrete roads were laid in the workshop. “If the road becomes dusty then water can be sprinkled on the cement to control dust,” Kinlay Dorjee said.

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