The municipality plans to start segregating waste from the 12th Plan
Waste: To address the growing issue of waste in Trashigang town, the Trashigang Municipal Authority (TMA) would soon expand the existing landfill.
Constructed in 2005, the landfill, which has reached its full capacity, is located about four kilometres away from Methidrang town towards Rangjung and right below the Karuna House dog pound.
Given the difficulty to identify a suitable land, the municipality has opted to expand the landfill by another five meters and construct a 20-meter wall as a temporary measure.
Municipal engineer Pema Dechen said the increasing population of Trashigang town has resulted in an increased generation of waste, causing the landfill to overflow.
“Trashigang lacks a separate facility for proper segregation of wastes. All kinds of waste are dumped in the landfill,” she said. “Neither do we have qualified manpower to advocate people on the means and ways to reduce waste generation.”
However, the municipality has plans to start segregating waste from the next Plan period. Until then, the minor expansion of the landfill is expected to address the issue of waste.
“The expansion would be funded through regular maintenance budget we receive every year,” Pema Dechen said. “Should a shortage of fund arise, we hope to make it up from the dzongkhag’s overall budget for TMA,” Pema Dechen said.
Currently, TMA has two waste collecting trucks that not only caters to the township but also extends until Kanglung towards Samdrupjongkhar and Lungzor towards Trashiyangtse.
While illegal dumping is not as rampant in Trashigang, cases of garbage being burnt in the extended town settlements of Pam are quite a common practice.
“Our trucks collect waste from the road points at Pam twice every week and instances of people burning garbage are only in small quantities,” Pema Dechen said. “Once the LAP for Pam is complete and the infrastructures ready, such cases of burning would stop.”
Apart from the landfill for the township, Trashigang dzongkhag has three other landfills located at Rongthong, Rangjung and Wamrong.
Tshering Wangdi, Trashigang