Schools lead cleaning campaigns in eastern Bhutan

In eastern Bhutan, the lower secondary school of Mongkhar has become a champion to maintain the area free of waste.

 

Over the past decade, increased economic activity has resulted in a rise in packaged products. Local governments tiny budgets rarely allow managing effectively increasing amounts of waste.

 

In 2012 the Joint Support Programme implemented by the Department of Local Governance with the support from DANIDA and the Poverty-Environment Initiative started to train local government officials on how to better plan for sustainable development.

 

As a follow up to the training, through the Department of Local Governance, the Joint Support Programme started giving grants to remote villages and districts with budget constraints that were facing some development problem.

 

In Monghkar district, the grant has helped the municipality to start dealing with problems associated with increasing waste.

 

Among others, the grant permitted producing cleaning campaign posters, organizing cleaning campaigns in collaboration with the private sector and with local schools and distributing over 40 recycling bins to schools.

 

And Children have become exceptional ambassadors of a Bhutan free of waste.

 

Although financial challenges remain, the grant provided by the department of local government, better known as the “Capacity Development Grant” has managed to increase citizen’s awareness and set the basis of truly sustainable future for Bhutan.

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To find out more about Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI) : https://www.unpei.org/

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