ULAN BATOR, Dec 20 (Xinhua) -- Mongolian PM Erdenebat Jargaltulga urged local scientists to find most feasible solution for the devastating air pollution that made the capital of Mongolia, one of the most polluted cities of the world in winter.
Mongolian PM said to the gathered local scientists that Mongolian people trusts in its scientists and scientific community and seeking their help.
Regdel Duger, president of Mongolian Academy of Sciences said "previously, many baseline researches on reducing the air pollution have been carried out. However, so far, no feasible projects to reduce the air pollution have been implemented. Our working group will propose a concrete proposal to reduce air pollution based on scientific and pragmatic approaches and report to PM soon."
Batsuuri Jamiyansuren, Mongolian Minister of Education, Culture and Science said that a working group comprised of leading local scientists and researchers will be set up immediately and this working group will develop most feasible proposal to significantly reduce the air pollution and present this to the cabinet meeting. If the proposal is really practical and feasible, government will implement it."
Mongolia have 6 months of winter and more than 300,000 households ( about 800,000 residents) of slum districts of Ulaanbaatar known as Ger districts have to rely on burning raw coal and any other inflammable materials such as plastics, old tire rubber in order to stay warm and make their meals during this period.
As a result, Ulaanbaatar is now one of the most polluted cities in the world with PM2.5 on average 7 times higher than WHO standards.
Mongolian government and international donors and development organizations such as World Bank, Asian Development Bank and US Millennium Challenge Account spent millions of dollars for programs and projects with stated goal to reduce the air pollution since 2000.
However, analysts criticize these past efforts as these really didn't substantially reduce the air pollution and the air pollution remained about the same as it was in early 2000.
Local and international health experts have noted an increase in cases of child pneumonia due to air pollution. Local hospitals are already overcrowded with sick children and many parents expressed anger and frustration at government for not taking care of the air pollution problem.
