A survey in
2009 by the Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism  revealed that 3,732 traditional water courses
and streams ion the country, as well as 1,162 natural water reservoirs were dry.
The number of fish in the Tuul
River has been grossly
depleted in the past three years, mainly because of lack of oxygen in the
water. The State Inspection Authority has blamed discharge of chemical waste
into the river by Chinese invested factories for this.

All these
facts came up when Parliament discussed the National Water Program yesterday. The
program calls for many measures to enforce proper and less wasteful use of
water, including installation of water meters in homes. The Ministry has
established the National Bureau of Water and will add 15,000 households to the
18,000 that already have such meters. Minister L.Gansukh said many of the threatened
water sources are in remote areas and Mongolia has neither the technology
nor the human resources to undo the damage.

MPs criticized
the present practice of allowing animal skin and leather factories to operate under
license from the Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Light Industry with no role
for the Ministry for Environment in monitoring their activities. The factories
themselves are under the authority of the Mayor’s Office, with, again, no role
for the concerned Ministry.