Mongolia: stale air forces thousands of children to flee
AFP 14 / 03 / 2019
Mongolia, its steppes as far as the eye can see, its lakes and its nomads ... A landscape of postcard hidden in winter by the thick toxic fog that includes the capital, where thousands of children are forced into exile because of the risks to their health.
Ulaanbaatar, home to nearly half of the country's population of more than 3 million, is one of the most polluted cities in the world, victim of coal burning still widely used.
The majority of the inhabitants live in slums on the outskirts, in traditional tents - yurts - without running water or evacuation system.
For thousands of parents, the dilemma is harsh: keep your children close to you at the risk of putting their lives in danger or sending them to live green to protect them from pollution?
In this country landlocked between Russia and China and big as three times France, the toxic air causes a real exodus out of the capital. Experts warn that pollution is disastrous for children, causing developmental delay, chronic disease, and even death. In winter, the hospitals are full.
Naranchimeg Erdene's daughter has seen her immune system weakened by the toxic air of Ulaanbaatar, where home heating systems burn coal and even plastic in slums, while temperatures plummet beneath the bar of - 40 degrees in winter.
- Destination: clean air -
"We were constantly going back and forth to the hospital," Erdene told AFP. Her daughter Amina suffered from pneumoconiosis (a lung disease caused by inhaling dangerous dust) twice at the age of two, requiring multiple antibiotic treatments.
The only possible remedy, according to doctors: send the girl to the countryside. Today, Amina lives with her grandparents in Bornuur Sum, a village located 135 kilometers from the capital.
"She hasn't fallen ill since living here," enthuses Ms. Erdene, who sees her child only once a week, at the cost of a three-hour round trip.
"It was really difficult the first months (...), we cried on the phone," recalls the mother who, like many parents in Ulan Bator, had to make up her mind to this choice of life to protect her daughter. .
According to some measures, Ulaanbaatar, the coldest capital in the world, is also the most polluted, with record levels of PM2,5. These fine particles, whose diameter is less than 2,5 micrometers, are harmful because they penetrate deeply into the lungs. Their concentration reached 3.320 micrograms per m3 in January, 133 times the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO).
- Fleeing abroad -
What stir up social tensions. The most fortunate residents of Ulaanbaatar do not hesitate to accuse migrants of slums and demand their expulsion.
But for these, coal heating is the only accessible.
"People come to settle in the capital because they need a regular income (...) It is not their fault", indignant Dorjdagva Adiyasuren, a mother of a family who lives in a yurt with six children.
In an attempt to stop the problem, the authorities have banned migratory movements inside the country in 2017. And since May 2018, coal heating is theoretically no longer allowed. No convincing results yet.
Residents who have the means, they flee abroad during periods of heavy pollution, like Luvsangombo Chinchuluun. This activist association did not hesitate to borrow money to take her granddaughter to Thailand throughout the month of January.
- Lungs and brains affected -
The effects of pollution are disastrous for adults, but children are even more vulnerable, partly because they breathe faster and absorb more air and pollutants stagnant at ground level.
Despite the health risks, Badamkhand Buyan-Ulzii and her husband have no choice but to stay in the capital to work. But they decided to ship Temuulen, their two-year-old son, to more than 1.000 kilometers.
The mother of 35 years hesitated at length to make this decision, preferring first to move from one district to another in the hope that the health of her son improves. In vain. Several health troubles, including a bronchitis that lasted a whole year, finally convinced her to send Temuulen to her grandparents.
"It doesn't matter if I miss him and who raises him, as long as he's healthy I'm happy."
The result is convincing, assures Mrs. Buyan-Ulzii: "My mother-in-law asked me if it was still necessary to give him medicine, because he no longer coughs".
Some consider pollution to be a crippling factor, which puts their future at risk. "It is risky to have a child: who knows what will happen to him once born?", Mrs. Erdene is in despair. This mother says she is "scared" at the idea of being pregnant again.
