The sensitization workshop in Tashi Yangtse was conducted on 12-13 October and in Samdrup Jongkhar on 15-16 October. The local leaders and the district environment officers actively participated in the programme.
The workshops were held with the aim of educating Gups (Local leaders) on water resources and its management. Gups, as the head of the Gewog (block), has a very important role which includes the utilization and management of water resources. With the IWRM sensitization in these two districts, all 20 Bhutan districts have now been covered and GWP Bhutan is hopeful that the leaders will make use of the knowledge gained to allow them to make informed decisions with regard to water resource management.
During the workshops, presentations on the importance of environment and water were made, followed by very fruitful discussions on various environmental and water related issues. In order to stress the importance of good water governance, exercises were conducted where the local leaders expressed their thoughts and ideas in a pictorial form. The participants said that the knowledge gained would be shared among the locals, and be used in the management and planning of the use of natural resources in their areas.
Top photo: Punakha river, Bhutan, by By L. Shyamal (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons