Desperate Mongolians send children into countryside to escape choking winter smog

General view of the Sukhbaatar district of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
General view of the Sukhbaatar district of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.PHOTO: REUTERS

ULAANBAATAR (REUTERS) - Mongolia has extended school winter holidays in the world's coldest capital and many families have sent children to live with relatives in the vast, windswept grasslands to escape choking smog and respiratory diseases such as pneumonia.

The temperature is expected to drop to minus 32 degrees Celsius in Ulaanbaatar on Monday (Feb 4) night, as residents burn coal and trash to try to keep warm and concentrations of smog particles known as PM2.5 routinely exceed 500 mg per cubic metre, 50 times the level considered safe by the WHO.

Mongolia, a former Soviet satellite landlocked between Russia and China, has invested public money and foreign aid to tackle pollution, but improvement has been slow. Residents saying inaction has been compounded by a corruption scandal that has paralysed parliament.

In a crowded township more than 40 miles from Ulaanbaatar, Jantsandulam Bold's five grandchildren are breathing more easily after fleeing the capital.

"Fresh air and sun are most important for kids to grow healthy and robust," says Jantsandulam, 57, making milk tea for her grandchildren in her home, a thickly padded felt hut known as a "ger", or in Russian, a "yurt".

"This little one had flu when he came here but the fresh air has treated him well," she said, pointing at her five-year-old grandson.




Reuters calculations based on US Embassy data show annual average PM2.5 concentrations hit 100 micrograms in Ulaanbaatar in 2018. They soared to 270 in December.

PM2.5 in China's most polluted city of Shijiazhuang stood at an average 70 micrograms last year, down 15.7 per cent from 2017. The World Health Organisation recommends a concentration of no more than 10 micrograms.

The WHO said 80 percent of Ulaanbaatar's smog was caused by coal burning in "ger" districts, where thousands of rural migrants, used to a nomadic lifestyle, have pitched huts. It estimates air pollution causes more than 4,000 premature deaths a year.

A joint study by the UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and Mongolia's National Centre for Public Health said children living in one smog-prone district of Ulaanbaatar had 40 per cent less lung function than those living in the countryside.

"Air pollution aggravates respiratory diseases and children under five are most vulnerable as their organs are still not mature," said Bolormaa Bumbaa, a doctor at Bayangol District's Children's hospital in Ulaanbaatar.

Families have already set up a pressure group known as Mums and Dads Against Smog, but after the protests they organised in Ulaanbaatar were ignored, the group decided to focus on encouraging residents to take action to protect themselves, said Mandakhjargal Tumur, a group coordinator.

"I don't believe the government will do enough to reduce pollution in coming years," she said. "That's why we are now focusing on raising awareness."


"I believe it's because of the pollution," she said, adding that home air purifiers did little to help.

"Just by opening the door, our home fills with smog," she said while breastfeeding Achmaa in the waiting room.


"Decision makers have said for years they are fighting pollution," she said. "They just wasted billions of tugriks on useless stoves and processed coal, which don't change anything."