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As Ulaanbaatar''s population swells, nonprofits are mobilizing to create sustainable solutions to infrastructural issues that pose safety risks and health hazards.
Children gather to play in GerHub''s community center, Songinokhairkhan district, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Mongolia''s capital city is growing rapidly, and the influx of nomadic families to the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar is straining its already fragile infrastructure.
The lack of medical resources combined with astronomical levels of pollution and food insecurity pose a threat to all residents, but young children and pregnant women in particular.
Since 1990, the number of people living in urban areas in Mongolia has increased from 58 percent to nearly 70 percent. This number continues to grow each year as nomadic herders relocate to ger areas – recently settled areas in the hills and mountains surrounding Ulaanbaatar.
These areas lack essential resources like plumbing, electricity, and access to clean water and healthy food. Many residents choose to live in ger areas because their proximity to the city holds the promise of educational and career opportunities.
"It''s important to note that the ger area isn''t a ''slum'' – it''s a very important part of the city," said Daria Azbayar, a social innovation lead for GerHub, a nonprofit that works closely with residents of Songinokhairkhan, the fastest growing ger district in Ulaanbaatar. "Ulaanbaatar was a nomadic city – it moved around – so our original form of the city was ger areas."
GerHub''s most visible contribution to Songinokhairkhan is the Ger Innovation Hub – a community center that seeks to bridge the infrastructural gaps that local residents face.
Designed to replicate the traditional structure of a ger, the Ger Innovation Hub''s architecture utilizes modern materials and is engineered to maximize energy efficiency by trapping heat within the walls.
Approximately half of Ulaanbaatar residents live in traditional gers – structures made of organic materials like wood and thick fabric. The Innovation Hub borrows structural elements of the ger design but substitutes cloth for polycarbonate sheets that can expand and contract in extreme temperatures without breaking.
The sheets also enable natural light to enter the space, minimizing the need for electricity.
Rural Urban Framework, Hong Kong University''s architecture design research center, designed the center to give the surrounding residents a space to gather and organize, and an opportunity to form a more permanent sense of community.
Integrating the community into GerHub''s Innovation Hub wasn''t an easy process. "There''s no word for ''community'' in the Mongolian language," said Azbayar. She said residents were initially reluctant to participate in events hosted by the center when it opened up in March 2022.
"In ger areas, people tend to be very separated from each other. You have your own plots with fences around them," said Azbayar. "When we opened up the space, we could hear crickets."
According to Azbayar, while residents of the ger district face challenges, they also have new opportunities and a growing sense of unity – positive outlooks that GerHub seeks to facilitate through programming that provides education and community building activities.
Sambuu Urtnasan, who frequently visits the Ger Innovation Hub, has lived in Ulaanbaatar''s Songinokhairkhan District for more than 25 years, and originally moved there seeking job opportunities.
"One of the biggest challenges is the winter season," said Urtnasan. "It is hard to walk in the streets especially due to the steep topography in my neighborhood. But the topography is an advantage when it comes to the terrible air pollution – you have more airflow."
During the freezing winter months, Ulaanbaatar is often ranked one of the most polluted cities on the planet, and this pollution is particularly concentrated in ger districts where residents burn coal to stay warm.
According to UNICEF, nearly 90 percent of energy consumed in Mongolia is used for heating purposes, and coal is the primary energy source. Pollution soars on the coldest days, with records of particulate matter in Ulaanbaatar reaching up to 133 times the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines'' mean for pollution.
The high levels of pollution result in negative health outcomes, including higher rates of infant mortality and dysfunctional births as well as severe respiratory diseases, which disproportionately affect children.
According to a UNICEF study, approximately 300 people die annually from pollution-related illnesses in Mongolia, 80 percent of whom are children.
Khishigjargal Batjantsan, UNICEF Mongolia''s program officer for Climate Change and Clean Air, says that one of the greatest obstacles in combatting air pollution has been a lack of data.
UNICEF has been leading efforts to study pollution in urban centers around Mongolia through the use of air quality monitors to gauge the levels of particulate matter on a local level.
"Over the last four or five years we''ve focused mainly on data generation," said Batjantsan. "If we cannot measure, we cannot manage."
In order to generate more specific data, UNICEF outfitted schools in high-risk areas with basic, low-cost air monitors. By working with the government, UNICEF also developed a forecasting model to predict levels of air pollution several days in advance.
UNICEF has produced data that national ministries and institutes use to guide public policy, and has worked with Bat-Erdene Bat-Ulzii, Mongolia''s minister of environment and tourism, to champion economic policies that incentivize investing in the transition from coal to green energy in households.
UNICEF''s Cooking, Heating and Insulations Products (CHIP) package is designed to provide "green loans" – government subsidized loans that are accessible through commercial banks – to enable residents to replace coal burning stoves with electric heating and battery-powered alternatives. The package also provides insulation products to reduce heat loss in gers.
The package has been used to provide green energy to over 2,000 households, reducing coal use by approximately four tons of coal per year for each household.
Applicants who meet credit requirements for green loans are advanced 20 percent of the cost of the CHIP package. But the package''s market price – approximately $900 – is still too high for many in the ger areas to afford.
"Air pollution is very seasonal, which also makes people very reluctant to invest in it," said Ariunzaya Davaa, UNICEF Mongolia''s communication specialist. "People buy these products and then sell them back in the summer because they need the money."
And according to Davaa, many families are simply unaware of the long-term health effects of air pollution.
"That''s why we also have to increase awareness of the health impacts, and to improve the health services," Davaa said.
GerHub launched an initiative in partnership with University of Pennsylvania''s Center for Environmental Building and Design aimed at reducing pollution by creating guidelines for people to weatherize their gers with insulation materials to conserve heat and energy.
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