Mongolia faces critical water shortage, UNEP report says

Bangkok - Mongolia needs to invest about 1 billion dollars in the Tuul River ecosystem and improve its national water management if its population is to have access to clean water, a United Nations report warned Tuesday. Climate change and rapid urbanization have already sapped water resources in Mongolia, where more than half the population of 2.4 million have no access to clean water, according to the Urban Water Vulnerability to Climate Change in Mongolia report, published by the United Nations Enviroment Program (UNEP) and the Mongolia Water Authority. The report found that Mongolia's average temperature has increased 2.1 degrees Celsius in the past seven decades, accompanied by an increase in extreme temperatures and natural disasters such as droughts, flooding and heavy snowfalls in recent years. The effects of climate change have been compounded by rapid urbanization, the report noted. Of Mongolia's total water consumption of 540 million cubic metres per year, over 80 per cent is consumed by the industrial and agricultural sectors and 20 per cent by household use. About 80 per cent of drinking water comes from aquifers. "If the status quo for water management in Mongolia continues, the country will not be able to provide sustainable water resources for its population under future climate change," said Young Woo Park, the Bangkok-based UNEP regional representative for Asia and the Pacific. The situation is particularly dire in Ulaanbaatar, the capital, where nearly 40 per cent of the country's population reside, most of them in "informal" settlements with little or no access to public utilities including piped water. Because of widespread use of aquifers, the capital's groundwater tables have dropped sharply over the past 50 years, UNEP said. "A large part of the water resources for the city comes from the Tuul River, where continuing ecosystem degradation will prove extremely costly in terms of water and other services lost," the report said. Improved conservation of the Upper Tuul ecosystem will require an investment of 979 million dollars, it said. The UNEP report also advised Mongolia to develop an integrated urban water management plan for the Tuul River Basin, raising public awareness about saving water, build water recycling plants, and improve the management of water supply utilities.

Posted by Earth Times Staff