Lobesa is a small and busy (to- be satellite) town under Punakha dzongkhag. The townlet has grown from a few hundreds to many thousands today (It would be 15000 plus people if roughly estimated). Lobesa boasts of 2 schools, the College of Natural Resources, Wangdi Forestry head office, a PWD branch, about 150 plus shops, a bustling 7 days vegetable market, a BPC (Bhutan Power Corporation) office, RBA firing range, a Bhutan Telecom office, few tourist hotels, some mechanical workshops, branch offices of most government offices and ofcourse the neighbouring villages.
However, like most prosperous settlements, waste is becoming a sad rising concern. The town had a waste service that was initiated by PHPA in the past but the service is no more there (I couldn't figure out the specific reasons). Few residents burn their wastes near their houses, some dump it in the pits (allocated and unallocated), the favourable ones drive it to Bajo to dispose it in the skippy bins near the Wangdi vegetable market and Bajo but many resort to throwing it everywhere and anywhere convinient. The area is getting dirtier by time. Every nook and corners, drains and brooks, and open fields below the highway become easy places to dispose household and other wastes. The unhealthy waste management added to the dusty roads is posing a big concern to the erstwhile beautiful town's cleanliness and sanitation apart from other many consequences. There so much of waste to see that it has made the town look as dirty as the word itself.
Hence, the waste management issue in Lobesa has become a challenge that needs immediate attention and action. The waste management problem in Lobesa would be easily solved if we had a waste collection service, even once a week service would greatly help. It has outgrown so much that awareness won't work. So the repecteive authorities' intervention and action would be a working solution.
Waste is a concern everywhere and its mmanagement has become a major challenge. Lobesa's waste issue is a managable concern for now but if immediate services are not put in place, it would become very difficult to manage.
Disclaimer: The figures in the post are based on estimates and informal interviews with residents. Nevertheless, the claim of not having waste service, the growing ugliness of Lobesa and the need for an immediate intervention is very true.
