This Report of the Standing Committee on Water Resources (2021-22) deals with the action taken by the Government on the Observations/Recommendations contained in their Twelfth Report (Seventeenth Lok Sabha)
In an renewed battle to tackle the mounting garbage problem, the Thimphu city corporation (TCC) will empty all recycle bins in the city tomorrow and urge the public to use them correctly by segregating waste. This step is an immediate action the city corporation is once more taking, after concerned agencies discussed solid waste management in a three-day conference from August 18.
With the waste management problem getting out of hand, the government is considering privatising waste management in the country instead of overloading itself. At the end of the three-day conference on solid waste management on August 20, one of the recommendations was to privatise the management of the ever mounting waste problem. Some private businesses have already submitted proposals to the government.
With the waste management problem getting out of hand, the government is considering privatising waste management in the country instead of overloading itself. At the end of the three-day conference on solid waste management on August 20, one of the recommendations was to privatise the management of the ever mounting waste problem. Some private businesses have already submitted proposals to the government.
Revision of tax and fees on vehicles according to size, green tax on older vehicles, pedestrianisation of Norzin Lam, tramline buses in Thimphu, Gelephu and Paro, monorail from Thimphu to Paro, river transport and a railway system inside Bhutan. These are some of the proposals suggested for study in the surface transport development plan. The plan is an effort by the government to develop a long-term transportation plan and strategy for 15 to 20 years at about Nu 4.5 billion.
The government's plan to raise the vehicle import duty and annual vehicle registration fee to make cars more expensive has met public opposition. With good reasons. The car has revolutionised the way Bhutanese live. It has allowed hundreds to travel where they will, in comfort and security, at a time of their own choosing. Owning a car remains a goal for hundreds of others. To have to pay more now for something that has long been at lesser cost is unfair.
Each person generates about a kilogramme of household waste everyday, according to the first national survey solid waste survey carried out in urban centres of Bhutan by the department of urban development and engineering services (DUDES). The survey, which was conducted from November 2007 to January 2008, in 10 urban centres showed Phuentsholing as the highest centre, with each individual generating about 1.2 kg of waste. The lowest was recorded at Trashigang with 0.6 kg.
A recent inter-ministerial report said that the Bjemina stone quarries of the Singye Group were being mined unscientifically. Kuensel has learnt that the department of forests(DoF) under the agriculture ministry ignored mining laws to renew quarrying rights to Singye Company for Bjemina in 2006 up to 2016 and issued a new quarry in Wangdiphodrang to Damchen Company in 2000.
An inter-ministerial investigation carried out at the Bjemina quarry site pointed out that quarries in and around the area could be negatively affecting the local communities' health and crops. The report stated that quarries were practising unscientific quarrying and thereby posing a threat to the environment and workers.
Is global warming causing more extreme weather? Many people seem to think that the last decade's heat waves, hurricanes and droughts did not happen just by chance, but were linked to the phenomenon of global warming. In 2003, for instance, a ferocious heat wave settled unexpectedly across Europe and killed 35,000 people. Nobody saw it coming.
The proposal to shift the 1,095 mega watt (MG) Punatsangchu-I project, to a new dam location was approved by authorities comprising Bhutanese and Indian officials at the Punatsangchu hydropower authority (PHPA) meeting on August 8, at the capital. The new location means an increase in the generation capacity of the station from 1,095 MW to 1,200 MW. "This happened because of shifting the dam to a better location. It gave us the additional head of 105 MW because of more quantity and force of water,' said the managing director of Tala hydro project authority (THPA), R N Khazanchi.
