Air pollution business swallows 557.2 billion MNT

Under measures for reducing air pollution, one million trees were planted with financing of 489.6 million MNT. Unfortunately, nobody can see where the trees are today and there is no evidence about those who planted the trees. The reports that the trees were planted remain only on paper. In reality, there is no progress in air pollution reduction and increase of green facilities in Ulaanbaatar. We have seen 489.6 million MNT disappear from the state budget behind empty slogans for air pollution reduction.

Other efforts to reduce air pollution include the trial project to install filters in 25 public buses to improve emission control, which is being implemented under a nonrefundable aid from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Relevant officials say that as installing this filter in a public bus is a high efficient way to cut emissions, this filter should be installed in at least 1,000 public buses providing public transport services in Ulaanbaatar.

It is unclear so far whether we will see better outcomes from this project, but we have had good examples of reduced toxic emissions from vehicles.

In 2011, the Ulaanbaatar Mayor’s Office made a contact with Clean Air Fund and Khash Technique LLC to supply equipment to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals from vehicles, which was worth 495 million MNT, but the contract was not put into action.

Under efforts for reducing air pollution, other project that the public is aware of is the semi-coking coal plant construction project at Thermal Power Plant No. 2 eight years ago, which has been put on hold.

There are a number of large projects planned for air pollution reduction, including the construction of Thermal Power Plant No. 5 and a proposal for a feasibility study for Thermal Power Plant No. 6, but real action is close to zero.

We can see thousands of work outlined in a list of dream projects to reduce air pollution. Although Parliament adopted a bill related to air quality in 1995, and amended it in 2010 and 2012, implementations of the law has been murky over the past 20 years.

The implementations of Parliament’s Resolution No. 26 and Government’s Resolution No. 24 for fighting air pollution have been idle.

Recently, 557.2 billion MNT was spent by the state and Ulaanbaatar to reduce Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution from 2008 to 2016, 164.1 billion MNT of which comes from loans and nonrefundable aids from international organizations.

The fund subsidized “smokeless” stoves, “clean” coal projects, and substantial money was spent to host workshops and meetings, which discussed ways to reduce air pollution in Ulaanbaatar.

Air pollution is the main concern for Mongolians every winter. The people already realize that financing projects related to stoves, chimneys, and filters is inefficient, but the current environment minister started promoting a project to install filters in chimneys of ger district stoves, which has led to strong public criticisms.

People are asking what if we had spent that 557.2 billion MNT building apartments for ger district residents instead of selling stoves?

If we had built 36 meter square meters micro apartments through that money, 17,197 households could have been provided with new apartments.

If we could provide apartments to 17,197 ger district households, it would have a much better impact on air pollution in Ulaanbaatar by decreasing ger district occupancy.

We should realize that talking about issues surrounding air pollution promotes the interests of selfish people turning air pollution challenges into business opportunities.

Air pollution is still a challenging issue in Mongolia, perhaps because it provides the opportunity for business for those who offer costly and ineffective solutions. The people in power, instead of finding real solutions are only seeking to profit from air pollution, through such scams as the “smokeless” stove and “clean” fuel, and lately the chimney filter.

The only real solution is for the people to demand the government to provide adequate housing for those who live in the ger district. While we are at it, those who profited from air pollution by offering false solutions should be brought to justice.