The reutala road widening site

 28 January, 2010 - From a distance, it appears like a thick blanket of mist has covered Wangdigang area in Zhemgang. But at a closer look, it is dust from the excavation works at Reutala and the Wangdigang-Tingtibi bypass.

Almost all the tress in the Wangdigang-Reutala area looks white covered with dust and the visibility for commuters traveling to and from Zhemgang is reduced to few metres, making it a harrowing ride.

This according to locals and commuters is polluting the air and also threatening the ecosystem in the area.

The construction of the 16-km Wangdigang-Tingtibi bypass, which will shorten the Trongsa-Gelephu highway by 26 km, started in May 2008 and would help in mobilisation of material for the upcoming Magdechu project.

The widening of 1.2 km Reutala road began earlier this month to reduce the gradient of the road so that infrastructure material for the Mangdechu project could be transported easily.

“Instead of disposing the waste to safer areas, all the wastes are bull dozed down to the Mangdechu,” said a Wangdigang resident.

“It’s such an ugly sight and very unsafe to travel,” said a farmer from Nabji-Korphu, whose walking trail to and from his village is below the two sites. “We pray every time we use the trail,” he said.

The environmental friendly road construction norms state that wastes should be disposed in safe locations, but huge mounds of debris are just dumped into the Mangdechu.

Environment officers supposed to monitor such work are missing from the scene, according to a source. “Debris can be found falling down the river every time they execute the work,” he said. “But no one has done anything till now.”

The dust affects villagers living in Nimzhong, which is located opposite to the two sites. Korphu gup Wangda said that the bypass even blocked their farm road. “The lack of pollution monitoring was even raised at the dzongkhag yargye tshogchung,” he said.

Gup Wangda said that although people of his gewog complained about the pollution, he could not do anything as both the road widening and bypass work was important.

Meanwhile, the environment officers of Zhemgang and Trongsa told Kuensel that they are aware of the problem and has written letters to the department of roads in Zhemgang and to the road network project office in Zhemgang to introduce some pollution mitigation measures. “I have even written to the standard quality control authority but there was no response,” said the Trongsa environment officer, Sangay Khandu. The Zhemgang environment officer, Sangay Norbu, said that he had even suggested them to spray water.

The road network project coordinator could not be contacted, but the executive engineer of the department of roads in Zhemgang, Leki Dorji, said that disposing the waste in safer places was not possible because the first cutting is still going on. “When blasting is done and trucks cannot go to the site, disposing is impossible,” he said. “Since the place is in a windy and steep area, dust cannot be controlled.

Leki Dorji said that about five tippers, one excavator and a rock driller are deployed in the Reutala road widening area to dispose the waste.