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Mongolia: "One of the most disaster-prone areas in the world"

Some interesting and disturbing facts from ReliefWeb:

Mongolia "experiences a spectrum of disasters ranging from heavy snowfalls in winter, strong winds and dust storms, drought, earthquakes, and animal and human epidemic infectious diseases. The three largest cities in Mongolia are located in magnitude 7 to 8 seismic active areas."

Earthquakes are one of the most devastating forms of natural disasters, and in Mongolia, 80 percent of the total land area and 70 percent of urban areas are located in earthquake-prone regions. Ulaanbaatar accommodates more than half of its total population and produces around 60 percent of local products. However, the city is located in a very active seismic zone and, coupled with older infrastructure, building standards are doubtful to withstand earthquakes of above magnitude 5 on the Richter scale.

Mongolia ranks 114 out of 177 on the human development index. Surveys show that 36.1% live below the national poverty line, and 18.9% live on less than one dollar a day.

Avian flu occurred in 41 subprovinces, killing 679 wild birds.

Prices for basic food items such as wheat and rice rose more than 100% in the first few months of this year.

Mongolia spent about 7% of GDP on social assistance programs.

In the past 3-5 years, (1) 57 storm winds have caused nearly a million dollars in damage and killing 300,000 head of livestock, (2) 28 people have died in floods, (3) 358 forest fires have killed 3 people, and (4) at least 15 earthquakes were recorded.

Rivers and Lakes Drying Up in Mongolia

A new survey shows that the rivers and lakes in Mongolia are drying up.

The survey, conducted by the Water Authority and the State Professional Control Agency, revealed that over 1,200 rivers have dried up in Mongolia. Four years ago, more than 5,100 rivers were counted while today there were fewer than 3,900.

Government officials also said 2,600 lakes are now dry, out of a total of 3,700, while 23,000 of the country’s 93,700 springs are dry. Further, of the more than 400 mineral waters, 110 have disappeared.

Apparently, part of the blame lies with water-intensive industries such as leather tanning and gold mining. In a country that only receives 7-9 inches of precipitation annually and that is hundreds of miles from the ocean, water needs to be more carefully managed.

Results of last year's harvest

Mongolia had a larger-than-expected harvest this fall. Mongolia Web News reports that

about 205,821 tons of cereals, 142,124 tons of potatoes and 80,627 tons of vegetables were harvested this year.

Also, Mongolian farmers brought in 1008.8 thousand tons of hay, 25.9 thousand tons of hand-made fodder and 950.2 tons of silage crops.

Compared with the same period in 2007, the harvest of cereals, potatoes, hay and silage crops increased 85.3 thousand tons or 74.4 percent, 18.5 thousand tons or 16.2 percent, 116.0 thousand tons or 13.0 percent, and 796.1 tons or 6.2 times more, respectively.

Hopefully, this will help to make Mongolia more self-sufficient in the coming year and less subject to food price inflation.

Largest Economic Sector in Mongolia

According to Mongol Bank, Mongolia's largest economic sector is foreign remittances. $195 million enter the country annually from the 430,000 Mongolians working abroad (only 130,000 are officially counted). This means that 1 in 15 Mongolians is working overseas. (Source)

MPRP and DP joint government reassured

MPRP and DP joint government reassured

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Statement of Mongol Bank

Statement of Mongol Bank

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Justin Lin: Mongolia has a chance to covert the crisis into an opportunity

Justin Lin: Mongolia has a chance to covert the crisis into an opportunity

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Owning a car in UB

We have already decided that we are not going to own a car in Mongolia at least for the first few years. We are apparently nearly alone in that decision, though. Mongolia Web News reports a massive increase in car sales this year. At the beginning of 2008, there were 26,123 cars registered in Ulaanbaatar; today, there are 120,000. Well, maybe there will be more room on the buses now. No wonder it's hard to cross the street!

Never Find Out

More videos available here.

Treatment of cats and dogs in Mongolia

Peace Corps Mongolia has an interesting, albeit disturbing blog post about how domestic animals are treated in Mongolia. Here is an excerpt from the more disturbing part:

Speaking of killing dogs… in the bitter Mongolian winter, all stray dogs are killed. There are many reasons for killing off the street dogs. One reason is safety. A pack of hungry dogs sometimes will go after small children to eat. Another reason is for population control. I can’t imagine how many more stray dogs there would be if the majority weren’t killed off every winter.



How are the stray dogs killed off? Many people in the West would think that many of these are inhumane, but I’ll tell you anyway. Sometimes the poison is put in the trash dumpsters, so that the dogs will eat the poison. Sometimes dogs are clubbed to death. But the most extreme way I’ve heard to kill a dog: Let jailed prisoners out for the day. Give them guns. Let the prisoners walk around town shooting all of the stray dogs. You may think I’m joking, but I’m not.

Travel tips for Mongolia

Random Travel Tips has a couple of top 10 lists of recommendations for traveling in Mongolia.

Jannina Jessen has some interesting observations as well.

Racism in the 2008 presidential election?

For those who think race won't play a major factor in the election next month, check out this segment from the Howard Stern Show:

Japan backs refinery in Mongolia

Japan backs refinery in Mongolia

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Mongolian Government is to give away 30.5 billion MNT for goat subsidy

Mongolian Government is to give away 30.5 billion MNT for goat subsidy

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Modern Church Historical

Here's a funny Gilbert & Sullivan parody covering church history:

Political Compass Test

Dwain invited his readers to take the Political Compass test. Here are my results.

Japan to seek uranium from Mongolia

Bloomberg reports that fifty government and corporate officials from Japan will head to Mongolia this week to enter into talks seeking participation in that nation's uranium deposits. Japan is the world's third largest uranium consumer, and competition with China and India for the mineral has grown fierce.

Mongolia has 62,000 tons of proven uranium reserves, or 1 percent of the world's total, according to the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. The country has untapped areas that may contain as much as 1.39 million tons, which would make it the world's largest source of the ore, the group says.

Speech of Prime Minister S.Bayar: To pursue policy to shrink the budget (brief version from the main speech)

Speech of Prime Minister S.Bayar: To pursue policy to shrink the budget (brief version from the main speech)

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ADRA

This video highlights some of the relief and development work being done by the Seventh Day Adventists in Mongolia.