Gerelchuun Lkhagva is a retired police officer. Horses have been his passion for a long time. He inherited a herd of several dozen a few years ago. So he decided to have a home in the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s busy capital, to be closer to nature.
“Waste management is a big concern for me,” he says. “Not managing our waste properly will negatively affect our children and future generations, starting with the polluted air that they are breathing.”
His house is close to the city’s landfill, which has served its citizens for more than 14 years. The capital has grown substantially since then – and so has the amount of waste.
This is why the EBRD supported the city with a US$ 9.7 million loan, complemented by more than €4.9 million in grants from the European Union, to improve the city’s waste management. The project was also backed by funds from Japan and the South Korea. It is part of the Bank’s Green Cities Programme.
Gerelchuun’s concerns are clearly visible. The current landfill site can be seen from his home. It is not properly fenced off, so wind often blows waste around the surrounding area. Also animals can enter and stray around the site.
The EBRD and EU’s work will provide Ulaanbaatar and its citizens with a new sanitary landfill. It will provide more space for waste. Furthermore, a new plant will recycle 175,000 tonnes of construction and demolition waste each year. The gravel will be used, for example, for buildings and roads. It’s the first of its kind in Mongolia.
“Once the new landfill site is in place, our working conditions will improve significantly,” says Chuluuntuya Ganbold, who works as a traffic controller at the landfill. “The site will be fenced in, waste will be sorted and there won’t be any stray animals here.”
A short drive away, it seems like entering a different world: the contrast could not be sharper from the nearby images of waste.
Gerelchuun enjoys the late afternoon in nature with his son and his horses. Both his children, his older son and younger daughter, like spending their free time with the animals. It’s a reminder of what much of Mongolia looks like – after all, it is the most sparsely populated country in the world.
His son is gathering the horses before riding through a shallow river to greet his father. He is surrounded by a pristine environment: beautiful green hills, unspoiled grasslands and clear ponds. Only in the far distance to the east, one can make out the fainting apartment blocks of Ulaanbaatar’s city centre.
Gerelchuun welcomes the changes in his neighbourhood. He also believes that it is everybody’s responsibility to look after our nature.
Our children are our future, he explains. “I want them to grow up breathing clean air and in a clean environment. I would like to encourage every citizen of our country to take action.”