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Air Pollution in Mongolia

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Air Pollution in Mongolia News Air pollution in Mongolia Starting in May, the government of Mongolia will introduce a coal burning ban in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, as part of efforts to clean up the city’s air. Implementing the ban is going to be a challenge, but reducing air pollution is of fundamental importance to improving population health. Sophie Cousins reports. In June of last year, Dr Rokho Kim, an complex mixture of solid and liquid par- Mongolia office. “These stoves can burn environmental specialist for the World ticles suspended in air, and comprises a coal, wood, and dung, but during the Health Organization’s (WHO) Western wide range of substances, from sulphates winter, when temperatures can drop to Pacific Region, visited a school on the to black carbon. −40 °C, coal is used because it burns outskirts of Mongolia’s capital, Ulaan- Particles with a diameter of 10 longer than other fuels.” baatar. microns or less can penetrate the lungs, “The coal used in the stoves is a “I was concerned about the proxim- but the most harmful are those with a primary cause of Ulaanbaatar’s air pol- ity of schools to sources of pollution,” diameter of 2.5 microns or less. Such fine lution, much worse than other sources he says. When he got to the school, he particles can cross the lung barrier and of pollution such as cars and trucks or found that it stood right next to one of enter the blood system. Fine particulate waste burning,” Vanya says, citing a the low-pressure boilers used to heat pollution has health impacts even at very World Health Organization Regional Of- the city’s hydraulic grid. “The boilers are low concentrations. fice for the Western Pacific policy brief heated using raw coal,” he explains. “The Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution prob- published in 2018. The brief states that chimney for this particular boiler was lem has grown with the city, which has 80% of Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution in the just few metres from the school’s fence. almost tripled in size since 1990, and winter months is caused by households In the winter time the smoke must have today accommodates just under 1.5 and low pressure boilers burning raw been unbearable.” million people. The way it has grown is coal in ger districts. A central Asian country bordered as important as the extent of its growth, Referred to as raw coal, the fuel by China and Russia, Mongolia is with intensive rural-to-urban migration burned is not washed or processed in known for its vast tracts of largely empty resulting in a sharp increase of informal any way and produces copious amounts grassland, freezing winters and nomadic settlements. These settlements are com- of particulate matter as well as sulfur culture. In recent years it has become prised of structures called ‘gers’ – por- dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen known for something else: some of the table, circular dwellings made of wood oxide. Dug out of the ground in the city’s world’s worst air in the winter months. and canvas that are insulated with felt. Nalaikh area, it is also very cheap. The most polluted air in Mongolia Ger districts, located in the north of the “There is really no affordable alter- is found in Ulaanbaatar, where 46% of city, are now home to more than 60% of native in terms of clean fuel,” says Vanya. the country’s population resides. Ulaanbaatar’s population. “As a result, in the winter months over The defining characteristic of air “Gers are heated with traditional 600 000 tonnes of raw coal are burned pollution in Mongolia – as in many stoves which stand in the centre of the for heating in the city’s approximately countries – is the high concentration of structure and are connected to a chim- 200 000 gers, accounting for about 80% particulate matter. Measured in micro- ney that passes up through the roof,” of Ulaanbaatar’s winter pollution.” grams (millionth of a gram) per cubic explains Dr Delgermaa Vanya, health The Mongolian National Agency for metre, particulate matter consists of a and environment officer at the WHO Meteorology and Environment Moni- toring reports that in 2017, in the winter months that extend from November to March, the mean concentration of particulate matter for the country as a whole was between 80-140 micrograms per cubic meter. In ger districts of Ulaanbaatar, the concentration of fine particulate matter can reach well above 1 000 micrograms per cubic meter. Mongolia has a population of 3 million people and in 2016 an esti- mated 1 800 people died from diseases attributable to household air pollution and a further 1 500 people died from diseases attributable to outdoor air pollution. These included: ischaemic heart disease; stroke; lung cancer; acute low respiratory infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. UNICEF/Tamir Bayarsaikhan UNICEF/Tamir Rokho is keen to stress that the impact of pollution goes beyond the Ger district of Bayangol and Songinokhairkhan districts, Ulaanbaatar city, Mongolia. respiratory tract and lungs. “The main Bull World Health Organ 2019;97:79–80 | doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.19.020219 79 News consequences of air pollution are not purchase stoves that produce less pol- for the sustainable development of clean just a bad cough; they are heart attacks, lution. Since January 2017, electricity energy options. and strokes. There is also emerging in many of the city’s highest-polluting Just under a year later, there has evidence regarding neurodevelopmental districts has been provided free of charge been some progress. For example, the diseases, and adverse birth outcomes, at night. Needless to say, this has little government passed a law on hygiene and the relation between early exposure impact on households not connected in 2016 prohibiting the burning of all and later non-communicable diseases, to electricity. types of waste. There has also been an such as diabetes,” he says. To support the government’s anti- initiative to encourage people to move Bataa Chuluunbaatar, health spe- pollution efforts, in February 2018 out of the gers into better insulated and cialist at UNICEF Mongolia concurs, WHO released a set of suggested actions. less polluting apartments. saying, “Air pollution affects all the Suggested short-term actions in- According Shagdar Urantsetseg, organs that are supplied by blood cluded a ban on the burning of waste as the officer-in-charge of environmental vessels. It affects brain development, fuel and improving indoor air quality by health in the Department of Public lung function, and the cardiovascular banning smoking indoors. WHO also Health at Mongolia’s Ministry of Health, system.” Chuluunbaatar believes that suggested improving ventilation in gers a fund had been set up to give those who children are particularly vulnerable and other homes and the use of better live in gers or small houses in designated to particulate matter as their bodies insulation to reduce the need for heat- ‘air quality improvement zones’ the first develop, and points to possible evi- ing. The creation of a sustainable sup- 30% of their mortgage towards purchas- dence that the finest particulate matter port scheme to help low-income groups ing a new apartment. To date, some 86 can pass through the placenta to an adopt affordable cleaner technology was households have moved to newly built unborn child. also proposed. apartments. More transfers of this kind The 2017 Mongolia national pro- will be required to have an impact on the gram on reduction of air and environ- 200 000 or so gers in the city. mental pollution aims by 2025 to de- The outright ban on the burning of crease air pollutants by 80% and calls for The coal used in unprocessed coal will come into effect in prohibiting the use of unprocessed coal the“ stoves is a primary May in six central districts of the capital everywhere except in thermal power cause of Ulaanbaatar’s and will cover the use of raw coal in plants in Ulaanbaatar. air pollution. households, companies and enterprises, In the past, efforts to curb pollution Delgermaa Vanya except enterprises with special licenses have focused on rehousing ger district ” for energy and electricity generation. residents in apartments connected to the The government has also com- communal heating grid. More recently, A key medium-term suggestion mitted to providing households in ger the government started discussing the was for Mongolia to introduce more districts with cleaner processed solid feasibility of connecting existing homes stringent national standards for outdoor fuels and plans on having 600 000 tonnes to city utilities. Subsidies have also been air quality, while suggestions for the long of such fuel stored by September 2019. offered to families encouraging them to term included the drawing up of plans Dr Sergey Diorditsa, WHO Rep- resentative to Mongolia, welcomes the government’s commitment to ban the use of raw coal. “The challenge is going to be making sure the ban is imple- mented effectively,” he says. Diorditsa argues that, in the long term, the country will need to develop alternative energy sources. “It is impor- tant for Mongolia to continue to think how to introduce clean energy sources and technologies, and this may mean transitioning from fossil energy to renewable energy, using solar or wind power,” he says. Diorditsa also stresses the impor- tance of communities and government working together on improving housing in ger areas. When the next winter rolls around, better insulated housing will UNICEF/Eric Portas Pasquall UNICEF/Eric Portas Pasquall make a huge difference to the heating needs of the residents of Ulaanbaatar and to the air they are obliged to Mongolian family inside a traditional Mongolian dwelling.
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