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MongoliaEnvironmental Concerns
After many years of uncritical fostering of industrial and
urban growth, Mongolia's authorities became aware in the late
1980s of the environmental costs of such policies. Belated Soviet
concern over the pollution of Lake Baykal encouraged Mongolian
actions to preserve their counterpart Hovsgol Nuur, which is
linked to Lake Baykal through the Selenge Moron. A wool-scouring
plant that had been discharging wastes into Hovsgol Nuur was
closed; truck traffic on the winter ice was banned; and the
shipping of oil in barges on the lake was stopped. Deforestation
in the Hangayn Nuruu, had reduced the flow of northern Mongolia's
rivers, which were polluted by runoff from the fertilized and
pesticide-treated grain fields along their banks, by industrial
wastes, and by untreated sewage from growing settlements.
Ulaanbaatar--located in a valley--with factories and 500,000
inhabitants who depend on soft coal, had severe air pollution,
especially when the air was still and cold in winter.
Deforestation, overgrazing of pastures, and efforts to increase
grain and hay production by plowing up more virgin land had
resulted in increased soil erosion, both from wind and from heavy
downpours of the severe thunderstorms that bring much of
Mongolia's rain. In the south, the desert area of the Gobi was
expanding, threatening the fragile gobi pasturelands. The
government responded by founding the Ministry of Environmental
Protection in 1987 and by giving increased publicity to
environmental issues.
Data as of June 1989
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