The EPCRC had a meeting with representatives from government and non-government organizations on 12^th of April, 2018 as part of our ongoing soil pollution campaign.

Ulaanbaatar Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (USUG), Mongolian Association of Leather Industry, and Ulaanbaatar decontamination LLC kindly accepted our invitation to discuss about soil contamination in Ulaanbaatar city. During the meeting, we discussed current situation of soil contamination, its causes and solutions, and its legal environment.

WHAT DID THEY POINT OUT?

Ulaanbaatar Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (USUG):

♦ The Central Wastewater Treatment Plant (CWTP) works under a critical condition.

♦ Employees of the CWTP are working in a health threatening condition.

♦ Wastewater with chemical and mechanic pollution from tannery factory, carwash, wool and intestine refinery, and apartments flow directly to the CWTP without any intermediate treatment facilities.

♦ One of the causes of soil contamination is drying sludge accumulated at the CWTP. We can improve the situation by extending the facility.

♦ Ideally, it would be better if some factories, car washing services, and apartments use grey water rather than drinking water. However, we don’t have a proper infrastructure to produce and transfer grey water to the designated areas.

♦ All the wastewater is collected and directed to the CWTP where it goes through mechanic, biological and disinfecting treatments. Even the wastewater goes through these three-stage of treatments, the final water which is supposedly to be “clean” flows into the Tuul River with 50-60% of contamination. It causes gastrointestinal infections since people drink from the Tuul River directly.

♦Ideally, water treatment plants should have four-stages of treatment including mechanical, biological, chemical and disinfecting. Unfortunately, the CWTP does not facilitated with chemical treatment.

Mongolian Association of Leather Industry

♦ There are 27 tannery factories running operations in Ulaanbaatar city and most of them send their wastewater to “Khargia” sewage treatment plant (pre-treatment). Filtered water from “Khargia” sewage treatment plant flows to the CWTP. Even though “Khargia” works as an intermediate screening, it sends much polluted water to the CWTP because of its out of date technologies and its overloaded capacity.

♦ Tannery factories pay 4 types of different tariffs which cost around 7000-8000 tugrik (2.92-3.34 USD) for every one meter cube of water they use.

♦ The Mongolian tannery sector was established in 1934. We reduced our use of chemicals due to a pollution recently.

♦ Around 30-40 different chemicals are used for producing final products. Almost 10 types of chemicals are used to make semi-processed products.

♦ We do not have any opposition against the government proposition of moving tannery factories outside of the city. However there is one problem which is a lack of infrastructure. It is impossible to move outside of the city without a proper infrastructure.

Ulaanbaatar decontamination LLC

♦ “Ulaanbaatar decontamination” LLC sanitize pit-latrines in ger areas.

♦ A basic level of sanitation service costs 5000 tugrik (2.09 USD). Regardless of its cheap price, there are only few households sanitize their pit-latrines.

♦ According to MNS 5924:2015 “Pit latrine and sewage pit technical requirements”, every household in ger areas should have two separate pits each for sewage and fecal use.

♦ Households in ger area should sanitize their pit-latrines constantly.

♦ But the biggest problem regarding this situation is the low income of ger residents.

WHAT SHOULD WE DO NEXT?

Attendees of the meeting suggested some ideas on what we should do next to reduce soil contamination. Here are some of their ideas:

♦ It is important to reduce the number of households residing in ger areas. If we can’t, we should at least try not to increase the number.

♦ There is an urgent need for expanding the CWTP.

♦ Also it is really important to build intermediate treatment facilities at least one in every district in order to prevent CWTP to overload its capacity.

♦ We should immediately start the project of moving tannery factories outside of the city.

♦ Demand automotive repair shops and car washing services to follow the general requirements from Mongolian National Standards. And focus on implementation of the standards.

♦ Demand households in ger areas to sanitize and emptying the pit latrines on a regular term.

♦ Educating public to increase awareness on soil contamination.

♦ To put forbidding signs to swim in the river near the CWTP. In summer time, many kids play in the river which receives “filtered” water from the CWTP.