WE'RE TALKIN' TRASH: MONGOLIA TACKLES A MOUNTING SOLID

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ULAANBAATAR 000599

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/CM D.CITRON; OES/ENV-H. FINMAN
EAP - INTERNATIONAL FOR M. ENGLE, M. BAILEY
STATE PASS TO AID/ANE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON SENV PGOV SOCI EAID BTIO MG
SUBJECT: WE'RE TALKIN' TRASH: MONGOLIA TACKLES A MOUNTING SOLID
WASTE DISPOSAL PROBLEM.

Ref: 06 Ulaanbaatar 105


1. SUMMARY. As Mongolia evolves into a consumerist, disposable
society, its cities are increasingly becoming overrun by mounting
piles of trash and other solid waste. Garbage sometimes goes
uncollected for months, especially in impoverished ger (yurt)
districts, and Ulaanbaatar's single landfill is nearly full. For
over a decade, the waste collection and disposal system was
neglected as the country staggered toward a market-based economy
follow the collapse of the Communist system. Since 2000, the
Government of Mongolia (GOM) has actively sought to engage foreign
donors to help find a solution. In 2004 Japan's International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) stepped in with a successful waste
management improvement plan that has included upgrading
Ulaanbaatar's landfill, providing funding for new sanitation trucks,
developing collection plans and researching the location for a new
landfill. Only 3.7% of the city's waste is recycled (septel),but
city officials hope to see the figure rise to 10% by 2010. The GOM
also hopes to install an incinerator and recycling plant, and hopes
to boost capacity by sending more students overseas to study waste
management, a field of study not offered by Mongolian universities.
END SUMMARY

Average Mongolian Produces 1kg of Trash Daily
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2. According to the Ministry of Environment (MOE),Ulaanbaatar
produces on average 250,000 metric tons of trash annually; 250 tons
per day in summer and 560 tons per day in winter. (Note: The
seasonal increase is due almost entirely to ash waste from coal
burning stoves, although a portion of the city's population also
decamps to the countryside during the summer months.) Ger
districts, home to more than half of the capital's population,
account for 48% of Ulaanbaatar's total annual waste output.
Apartment complexes produce 32%; offices, shopping centers and
restaurants 17%; and loose waste (everything else) 3%. Each urban
dweller produces approximately 0.5 to 1 kg of waste everyday. Only
62% of all this waste makes it to a disposal site or is recycled
(58% and 4%, respectively). The remaining 38% is shunted off to the
9 or 10 illegal dumping sites that have sprung up around the city or
are simply tossed into streets or ravines.


3. About 90% of the waste that does find its way to a legally
recognized landfill is carted off to Ulaanbaatar's nearly full
Ulaanchuluut open-pit landfill, located just 17 kilometers northwest
of the city's center. The landfill is nearly encircled by the
expanding Bayankhoshuu ger district. Some 50 area families now make
their living as garbage pickers at the landfill.

Booming Economy Means More Waste
--------------


4. Over the past decade, Mongolia's thriving economy has spawned a
consumer lifestyle that has amplified the amount of waste it
produces, particularly in Ulaanbaatar, a city of nearly 1 million
people (about 40% of Mongolia's population). Moreover, the
country's booming construction sector and expanding medical services
have generated medical, hazardous and industrial waste that can no
longer be disposed of by traditional means.

Waste from Ger Districts Piles Up and Seeps In
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4.

5. Growing migration to ger areas around major cities has added to
the garbage mix. Ger districts suffer from inadequate sanitation
services because they lack even basic infrastructure and are hard to
reach. Residents simply dump trash into the streets or alleyways
where it collects in corners, holes or ravines, or is blown down
into the city center. The run-off from garbage seeps into the
ground, threatening local wells, or uncollected garbage provides
fuel for fire that regularly sweep through the wood and felt tent
communities, killing scores of residents at a time.

Coal ash waste from ger districts has also become a serious issue.
On average, Ulaanbaatar's 150,000 gers burn 5 to 7 metric tons of

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coal annually (about 40 to 50 lbs per day),though ger residents
also burn tires, wood, cardboard boxes, and anything else to keep
warm. The resulting ash is piled outside gers or tossed into the
street. Nestled in a bowl between mountains, the smoke blankets
the city in a thick fog, hanging there for hours during still winter
days. (Note: The Embassy abuts a ger district that is home to
130,000 people, and some mornings visibility is barely 50
meters.)morn. While the city's coal-powered energy plants dispose
of the non-airborne ash by turning it into concrete, no such plan
has been introduced for ger ash waste. Recently, Mongolia's Nuclear
Energy Commission told Econoff that there are considerable levels of
uranium embedded in much of Mongolia's coal, heightening concerns
about the health risks of coal burning and proper ash disposal.
According to city sanitation authorities, during cold periods, over
60% of solid waste from ger districts is ash. (Note: In early
2006, UB's Mayor claimed the burning of 4.7 million metric tons (MT)
of brown coal for heating and electricity and 750,000 MT of
petroleum for transportation spews some 260,000 MT of pollutants
into UB's atmosphere, much of it at human-breathing level.)
Waste Collection Woes Date to Early 1990s
--------------


6. Mongolia's current garbage predicament can be traced back to the
early 1990s when state control over waste management collapsed,
along with Mongolia's centrally planned economy. As part of free
market reforms and the privatization of public services, the GOM
introduced a fee-based waste collection system. Licenses were
issued to six (later nine) garbage collecting companies, only one of
which was in private hands, to haul away trash in designated
sub-districts within the city. But the companies were understaffed,
under-resourced and overwhelmed. Sky-rocketing inflation and
increasing poverty left few residents with the wherewithal to pay
the collection fees.


7. Eventually, a 100% collection rate during the socialist era gave
way to a slapdash (and some say corrupt) waste collection system
that led to garbage anarchy. Apartment dwellers tossed trash from
their windows, occasionally injuring passersby. Courtyards around
Ulaanbaatar became impromptu garbage dumps. Even apartments
fortunate enough to have garbage chutes saw a rise in fires, pest
populations and unsanitary conditions as trash remained uncollected
for months at a time. Illegal open dump sites that sprang up around
the city were also a source of fires and infestations.

GOM Moves to Improve Waste Management
--------------


8. By the year 2000, the garbage crisis had reached critical
proportions. Parliament passed a flurry of laws to regulate
industrial and domestic waste, as well as hazardous and medical
waste, but lacked sufficient capacity to either enforce the laws or
develop and implement effective waste management and reduction
programs on their own. Frustrated, the GOM looked to international
donors for assistance.


9. The Australian Government was the first to step to the plate with
a donation of US$22.7 million for a services implementation project,
much of which focused on waste management. Funds went to supply
solid waste collection units and "ancillaries and accessories."

JICA's Master Plan for Waste Management in UB
--------------


10. Then, in 2004, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency
(JICA) arrived with an ambitious project to entirely overhaul waste
management practices. Japan, by far Mongolia's largest aid donor,
had succeeded with such waste management projects in other Asian
countries. JICA first worked to upgrade and fortify the
Ulaanchuluut disposal site. They built an on-site paved road,
installed an enclosing bank, a storm water drain, gas removal
facilities, a leachate treatment pond, and a control house with
weigh station. They also erected a heated garage for sanitation
trucks and equipment and supplied a high-rise movable perimeter
breeze-fence, to catch refuse that is propelled by strong winds.
Finally, JICA developed a thorough waste disposal plan for the site
that included re-shaping and slope trimming of the existing landfill

ULAANBAATA 00000599 003 OF 004


as well as soil covering.


11. JICA also surveyed sites for a new landfill to replace
Ulaanchuluut, which will reach full capacity by December 2008. They
settled on an area called Ikh Narangiin Enger, just one kilometer
behind the Ulaanchuluut landfill. The new site's sophistication
will hopefully mean reduced health risks to the urban population.
It will operate until 2020. Officials from the City Maintenance and
Public Utilities Agency admitted that there is not yet any plan in
place to deal with waste after that year.


12. JICA then strengthened the capacity of the Solid Waste
Management Department through the funding of staffing increases, and
the revision of the fee system for solid waste collection. Over the
next two years, JICA will help fund the purchase of 50 new
sanitation trucks to add to Ulaanbaatar's aging, mostly Russian-made
fleet of 120, thereby allowing the city to expand collection efforts
around the city.

A Patchwork of Collection Systems
--------------


13. JICA also helped develop a patchwork of collection systems to
deal with the unique challenges presented by UB's multifaceted urban
landscape. One such system, the "Bell Collection System," in which
residents in apartments carry their trash to collection trucks three
times per week, is by far the most successful. The arrival of the
truck is sometimes signaled by a horn or bell; hence the name. But
many of the trucks donated through the JICA program lure residents
with the sounds of a famous Japanese lullaby.


14. Unfortunately, a lack of trucks and resources prohibits the bell
system from being implemented city-wide and many apartment blocks
still rely on traditional collection systems such as dust chutes and
communal container collection systems. Some areas are not serviced
at all by sanitation trucks and have reverted to disposing of trash
in illegal dumps or apartment courtyards and vacant lots.


15. The dust chute collection system remains problematic because
trucks can only haul away trash from these sites once a month. Few
landlords look after the chutes, which often clog and sometime burn.
It is also difficult for trucks to collect the garbage from the
interiors of apartment trash rooms.


16. The communal container collection system, where residents carry
trash to a neighborhood waste container, is hindered by trash bins
that damage easily. Furthermore, the garbage cannot be collected in
winter because it freezes, is set on fire to provide warmth for the
homeless or is otherwise scattered by waste-pickers. City
sanitation trucks visit residential areas once a month. City
officials are working to increase their fleet of sanitation trucks
in order to collect garbage more frequently.

Increasing Sanitation Service to Ger Areas
--------------


17. UB has beefed up service to ger areas with more frequent,
regular sanitation visits. A public awareness campaign calling on
ger district residents to cover their waste has cut down on
windswept refuse, and calls for communal help with loading garbage
into sanitation trucks has produced excellent results. Still, a
scarcity of sanitation trucks makes regular visits to all ger areas
difficult.

Recycling Efforts
--------------


18. The JICA/UB master plan for waste management envisions up to 10%
of the city's trash being recycled annually with the help of
education drive and the instillation of 134 recycling collection
points throughout the city. (Note: Recylcing to be covered in
septel.) Currently only about 3.75% of all waste produced in
Ulaanbaatar is recycled, thanks mostly to the efforts of a few
hundred waste-pickers who scour the landfill or inner city trash
containers. JICA's project harnessed the work of waste-pickers by
developing plans to introduce a recycling facility with a separation

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site that will allow waste pickers to engage in their activities
safely. Unfortunately, for reasons that are not clear, that
facility was never built. The Ministry of Nature and Environment
has established a working group to develop a draft law which imposes
penalties on importers of non-recyclable packages and materials.
The draft law is expected to be submitted to Parliament next year.


19. In addition to JICA's efforts, the GOM has developed its own set
of plans. It recently established a special site for the disposal
of medical and hazardous waste in the central aimag (province) of
Tov, and is developing a pilot program further afield, in Khovd and
Hovsgol aimags, that would create a template for each aimag to
establish its own landfill.

Incinerator, Recycling Plant and Capacity Building
-------------- --------------


20. Despite the tremendous progress made by JICA in strengthening
Mongolia's waste management system, more work needs to be done. The
GOM has said it is still procuring a medium size incinerator, having
rejected several offers from European companies because they were
either economically unviable or comprised of faulty (or even
dangerous) technology that the companies could not unload elsewhere.
The GOM would also like to build a small-scale recycling factory.
Finally, there is a critical need to upgrade human capacity in the
field of waste management. Right now only two to three students
head off to Japan each year to receive training in waste management.
At home, there is no real curriculum available, only a few courses
offered at the technical university.

Goldbeck