October 12: Paro is one of the biggest valleys in the kingdom. Visitors to Paro can spend hours exploring the beauty of the valley. While Bhutanese and visitors marvel at the beauty of the place, concern is also growing as litter and garbage become a very visible problem.

For the thousands of tourists who visit Bhutan, Paro is their first glimpse of our kingdom. As the kingdom moves ahead with development and growth, Paro like many other towns in Bhutan is also witnessing the construction of commercial and residential buildings.

Recently more than 350 students of the Paro College of Education participated in a day long cleaning campaign.

At the end of the daylong campaign, the volunteers collected four truck loads of waste. The collection ranged from plastic bags to carton boxes.

The clean up was organized by the Tarayana Club of the Paro College of Education. The coordinator of the club Sonam Tshering said support from the people would go a long way in fighting the problems resulting from waste disposal and litter.

The Paro Municipal Authority employs 10 workers and deploys two trucks every day to collect waste. But despite this, we can see wastes dumped in the open.

Just take a walk around the town and you will see drains blocked by litter. The electric and telephone poles smeared with lime and doma stains scarring the pavements. And of late, new sore sights as residents throw kitchen waste from the window.

For the Paro Municipal Authority, the problem is aggravated as the landfill site near Nemjo by the bank of Pachhu has reached its capacity.

The Municipal Authority is on the search for a new land fill site. However at the land fill in Nemjo, the municipal authority has begun work on segregating the waste.

While Paro waits for its residents to become responsible and conscious ones, campaigns like the one conducted by the Tarayana Club and the daily actions of the Municipal Authority of Paro will only be a part of the solution.