A Lesson from the Monsoon Skies

The downpour on Wednesday, in the capital left behind everything but the sweet scent of fresh earth that people are usually treated to after a spell of rain.

The downpour that created mini floods in odds and ends of the city presented a scene of roads scattered with sand, silt and pebbles; houses with water leaking from ceilings and water seeping from their walls. A business house losing goods worth millions also figures into this series as a sad story.

Yes, it was not a pleasant picture or an experience, especially for those who lost properties or had to put-up with unexpected and uncomfortable routines during and after the 15 minute (approximately) ordeal.

At the same time it is also a ‘No’ if everyone should hinge on blames that the skies burst open unannounced and nobody was prepared.

The live and freshly-witnessed accounts at locations point to elements that have much to do with municipality’s planning, and the need to have good drainage networks established up and around town. It also speaks enough about landlords’ willingness and unwillingness to let town planning or Local Area Plans (LAP) go their charted course. And this shouldn’t take many by surprise, but as individual (s), we have also contributed to this latest scheme of mud and murk.

The Thromde has owned up to its side of shortcoming in saying that Thimphu has grown and it has out grown what plans and blue prints were laid for it some 10 or 15 years back.

This is clearly and specifically true about the many visible (but ineffectively located drains), the invisible drains (that survived invasions of pet bottles and overpowering undergrowth of weeds but entirely stopped its drainage functions) and the non-existent drains or a drainage system in the populated building colonies.

Sure it took a maddening downpour to make the authority willingly acknowledge a side of their fallacy, but it is also not about humbling this or any other authorities. It should hopefully be a sign that serious implementation will follow to whatever plans have been in storage up and until now.

Land owners or house owners share the spotlight in all this for their incessant and adamant opposition against the LAP elements (if not all, ‘some’ but most definitely there are a ‘few’ at all times). 

Achieving a little detour from the municipality to avoid short-term inconveniences is definitely not worth it when problems come a pouring (literally) some years later.

Tenants who experienced leaky ceilings, drippy walls and watery floors in all this, have no fault of their own to be inconvenienced, but they have been.

However, as individuals we may all stand to have contributed to such watery eventualities. And we are perhaps doing this in bits and portions through an absence of basic civic sense, a sense of community that is hugely lacking in most or an inability to address common issues to avoid  the results of tiny actions that add up to an impending ‘gloom.’

In all this the Dzongkha saying of nay ma wom le rimdo, chu ma wom le yuwa (prevention before disease and drain before rain) sounds so strikingly applicable.

Published as Business Bhutan Editorial on July 05, 2014