More than a dozen years back (July 2010), I reported about rural Bhutan being used as burial grounds for empty glass beer bottles. Please read about it at:
What I reported above pertains to an act of a village bootlegger - in the remote village of Kheng Nimshong in Zhemgang. In all fairness, what the man did was an act borne of innocence - he would not have known any better.
It is likely that few million glass beer bottles may remain buried inside our forests across the country
But what is the excuse for the government to do nothing to mitigate such eventualities? Obviously if a clueless Khengpa is doing it in Zhemgang, a Sharchop in remote Sharchok could well be doing the same. So would a Lhotshampa in the South and Bjops in Laya, Lingzhi, Merak and Sakteng, in the North.
Empty beer bottles are heavy, brittle and their resale value is not worth all the trouble of delivering them to the scrap dealers in urban centers. So they end up strewn all over the forest floor and, even worst, deep inside trenches dug into the belly of the earth.
Can we do something about it, for the sake of our environment? Remember - we are known the world over as the champions of environmental protection - we have prestigious awards to prove that!
How about introducing a rule that would require the beer manufacturers/importers to maintain a monetary deposit with the government - for every glass bottle they release into the market. The manufacturer/importers in turn should hold a like sum in deposit from their Distributors, so that every bottle they lift is required to be deposited back with the manufacturers/importers, failing which the deposit gets deducted by the pre-determined value of shortfall in the number of empty bottles. Likewise, the distributors/dealers impose a similar requirement on their retailers.
The manufacturers/importers should not be affected by the rule since the deposit is passed on down the marketing channel. The beer consumer should not be affected greatly since the deposit requirement is likely to impact the pricing of the beer only marginally, if at all. If it does, tough shit!
Today, given the changing taste of the Bhutanese drinkers, I am told that beer is THE alcohol of choice among rural Bhutanese. I understand that the lowly Aara is now infra dig!
Is the ongoing transformation exercise likely to transform anything in Bhutan at all? Or, is it going to be the case of whole lot of EFFICIENCY without EFFECTIVENESS!
Let us dispense with the verbosity - it is time to get down to action for a change!
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