what a waste: For the past two months, 11-year-old Tsheten Dorji is being treated for third-degree burns he received from chemical waste dumped by factories in Balujhora in Bhutan's Pasakha town. The town residents complain that factories dumped waste very near residential areas. "Children are always playing about the site. The substances eats into the skin," said Tshering Zam, a resident. Other residents of the area, including three children, suffered burns from the waste. A spokesperson for the Bhutan Carbide and Chemicals Limited, one of the factories in Pasakha, said, "We dump the waste in the national environment commission's designated area."
water shortage: Farmers of Narirhat and Najirerhat villages in Bangladesh's Rangpur district have expressed anger against the government's water development board. They complain that the board has deprived them of irrigation facilities this season under its Teesta Barrage Project. Farmers recently met the board to discuss this but despite many appeals the board did not supply water. But board officials claim helplessness. "We tried our best to supply water to the fields in the command area of Rangpur. But all fields could not be given water due to water shortage in the main canal," says an official of the board.
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