To the First Meeting of the Kitakyushu
Initiative Network
R. Budkhand
The most problem in Ulaanbaatar is waste issues.
Ulaanbaatar city is located in the center of Mongolia, in the middle of the Khentii mountains, nestled in that long valley of Tuul river and elevated 1206 m above the sea level. Ulaanbaatar is a large industrial and administrative center with a registered population about more than 800 000 population. Ulaanbaatar’s major industries are power and heating plants processing and manufacturing of meat and foodstuffs, wool and cashmere manufacturing, leather dressers and tanneries, production of construction materials, furniture.
After continuing reforms of Mongolian Government institutions the responsibility for waste collection in Ulaanbaatar has been decentralized to the district level.
There is a City reconstruction company and nine District Construction and service companies in the city Government of Mongolia.
In the Ulaanbaatar has set up a District Construction and Service company, which is responsible for waste management, street cleaning, public construction works, gardening.
Hazardous waste:
Today there is only a very limited production of hazardous wastes in Ulaanbaatar due to the structure of industry. The known hazardous wastes are liquid (waste water with a content of chrome tanneries), but are concentrated as sludge, at present these sludge is deposited at a special dumpsite.
Hospital waste:
Hospital waste is collected in tripartite system. Pathological wastes are buried at a graveyard, infectious waste is dumped or burner (open air) at special site at the dumpsite and the remaining waste is treated as ordinary household waste.
Coal ash from power plants:
Great amounts of coal ash are piled up at the four power plants. The ash is mixed with water to a slurry and pumped to a special dumpsite. A minor part of the ash is sold for construction purposed.
Construction wastes:
Waste from construction and demolition processes is either dumped at the central dumpsites or along the routs. Recycling seems to be limited and nor organized at all.
Sludge from the waste treatment plant are collected in lagoon system where the sludge is dried. The sludge is disposed at a special dumpsite for sludge South of the city.
Most of the waste disposed at the three main central dumpsite: Dari Erkh, Ulaan Chuluut and Morin Davaa.
The current disposal site in Ulaanbaatar is only open dumping. They are mostly carried to housing animals without any sanitary control.
There is widespread activity within collection of recyclable wastes in both the city area and at the dumpsite. However, is only little organized collection of recycling materials and it is evident that far from all recycling materials are collected. Furthermore the existing collection system implies serious health to the scavengers.
The waste collection in both ger and apartment block areas is very inefficient. The collection performed without very slow and implies unsatisfactory low level of utilization of the trucks.
The existing dumpsites generate several severe environmental impacts and health risks especially two dumpsites located north of the city. Among the reasons are:
・ The dump sites are unfenced, which allows scavengers and animals to enter
・ No ground water protection
・ Covering of waste with earth is not sufficient
・ Open low temperature burning of parts of the waste results in air pollution
・ Some hospital waste is burned in open are at the dumpsites, especially at the Ulaanchuluut, Dari Erkh.
There are treatment facilities for the waste in Ulaanbaatar. Especially, it should be noted that there are no special treatment facilities for hazardous waste and pathological waste from hospital.
To the First meeting of the Kitakyushu
Initiative Network
L. Ankhmaa
In the Government Action Program was indicated that one of the Government Action Priorities is to “improve the living environment of the citizenry by reducing air, water, and soil pollution in urban areas, and by recycling garbage and waste”. Technologies and practices for safe management of wastes have to be developed, taking into consideration the local situation and other environmental factors.
The Government of Mongolia is paying more attention to the waste management. The Waste Minimization Program has adopted by the Government of Mongolia in January this year.
The Ministry of Nature and Environment of Mongolia is responsible for managing, controlling wastes and minimizing and preventing adverse impacts of wastes on environment and human health.
The Government’s aims in the field of waste management are:
1. To minimize waste production;
2. To encourage recycling;
3. To ensure that waste which can not be avoided is disposed of without endangering human health and without harming the environment; and
4. To ensure that nuisance or inconvenience to the public as consequence of disposal operations is minimized.
Here we focus on urban pollution in Ulaanbaatar because it is the largest urban area in Mongolia with close to 33 percent of the country’s population and because there are more data available on its situation. Air pollution in Ulaanbaatar is high and is increasing. Concentrations of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide increased between 1994 and 1999, while dust concentrations appear to have been rather stable. Serious pollutant concentrations have historically been a problem in Ulaanbaatar during the winter months because of temperature inversions that occur during the colder months and its valley location. Recently, however, the problems have begun to expand into spring and autumn as well.
The largest contributors to air pollutants in the capital are three large Combination Heat and Power Plants (CHPs), motor vehicle emissions, and household stoves in the ger districts. The CHPs which provide heat and electricity for the city use coal as their source of energy.
In 2000 there were over 50 000 vehicles in the capital, almost double the figure from 1994. Many of these vehicles are old European and Russian cars which lack catalytic convertors.
Coal burning stoves in the ger districts account for 30-65 percent of Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution. The Global Environmental Facility had funded a project to improve household stoves by slightly modifying a locally produced stove and by marketing a kit designed by project technicians which can be added to improve existing stoves. If the stoves and the kit are widely adopted, they could potentially reduce carbon dioxide emissions by between 42 and 54 percent.
The air monitoring data as well as the analyses data indicated that area of Ulaanbaatar has a high level of air pollution. It is suspected that the air pollution of Ulaanbaatar city increases the rate of respiratory disease of the general population of the city, particularly children of 14 years and under.
Mongolia is in transition period from a centrally planned economy to a free market economy has resulted in many changes to the industrial and agricultural sectors. Many industries and some agricultural operation have caused operating, undergone privatization, or divide themselves into smaller operating units. These changes combined with the current economic situation of the country have resulted in minimal environmental control and an increase in environmental damage.