Of course we got stuck in the never-ending traffic that is UB, so I was late to meet Bold. We went on a site visit to Khan-Uul District, 12th khoroo, about 25 km outside of city center. The area has a high risk of flooding from the end of April to the beginning of May due to snow melting process and from June to September due to heavy rains. About 47% of the community is unemployed, and those that are employed earn a very low wage. Floods wipe out the already limited resources of the community. Residents are unenthusiastic about initiating new livelihood sources, such as vegetable gardening, because of the danger to be destroyed by the flood. MRCS is using the 12th khoroo as one of 8 communities in a pilot program for the Community-based Disaster Preparedness (CBDP) project. The project aims at improving community resilience, protecting livelihoods and reducing incidence of preventable life threatening and debilitating injuries through increasing the targeted community members’ knowledge, awareness and practice of locally appropriate disaster preparedness, protection and mitigation methodologies. MRCS did a vulnerability capacity assessment, and determined the greatest need for the community was flood control aka reinforcing the embankment. This embankment was built in 1974 by the Soviets and has not been repaired since. There have been two major flooding events in 2008 and 2009, and the last major event before that was 1973. Which would probably explain why the embankment was built in the first place. It is most important to reinforce the curve in the embankment. Water comes rushing around the curve and breaks through the embankment. Also pipes get clogged with rubbish and sand. So the Red Cross got the local government and local branch of NEMA involved and so the project began! They started at the beginning of this month and will be done by the end of the month, just in time for flood season. It was great to see a project in action!
Sidebar: It is crazy dusty there. Any time a car drove by or the wind blew, massive amounts of sand in the face, and well everywhere. I think I saw my first sandstorm too. I'm not exactly sure what qualifies something to be a sandstorm, but lots of sand blowing at me is good enough.
This area is first affected when water flows over the embankment. They were never able to clean up the mud from last even
Adding concrete slabs to reinforce the embankment
Dusty Dusty
Concrete
Part of village area
More work on reinforcement and some more housing
Horses decided to cross the road as we were coming. Note boys in the background running after them.
After lunch, Zoloo and I met with Tsogt J, head of weather forecasting at the National Agency of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment Monitoring (NAMHEM), part of the Ministry of Environment. I have to say I was quite spoiled by our meeting with INSUVIMEH in Guatemala. They were so prepared and enthusiastic and answered questions well. Unfortunately this was not the case today. I felt like Tsogt and I were in completely different conversations. I don’t know if things were getting lost in translation or he didn’t understand my questions but it was a challenge. I asked about what type of forecast products they offer and he went off on something about climate change. I got the basics of what I needed, but would have liked more details. My main goal in going there was to understand more about their early warning (EW) system. The EW system in Mongolia is very poor. NAMHEM produces a warning and puts it on their website. The media outlets get that information and relay it via TV or radio. Even if communities receive the forecast, they may not understand what it means or how to prepare/react. Community knowledge needs to be improved on use of weather information. I think that Red Cross can play a large role in this.
*Sigh* so I hope you were not bored with the goings on of my internship. Not quite as glamorous as sightseeing but much more important :). I am really enjoying what I am doing here. I think I have figured out what I want to do when I grow up (whenever that is)…disaster risk reduction. So after this incredibly busy day, I had dinner with Zoloo at an Irish Pub. There is an excellent variety of restaurants here, but not cool you can smoke in them. Watched a bit of the NZ vs Slovakia game at the restaurant. I really am not that into soccer, but any sport where I can root for the US, I am likely to be in on.
Note: Mom and concerned family and friends you may not like what is to follow. Don't worry it's not that bad. Zoloo helped me get a cab back to the hotel. The cabs here are really weird because well, there are not many. There are a few legit cabs, but most do it gypsy cab style. But they are not even as legit as a gypsy cab, its like some dude is driving down the road and decides to make a few extra bucks by driving people places. Essentially hitching. Anywho Zoloo got me a random car to the hotel and told the guy where I was going. And I definitely got hosed. He took some long way around. It cost us 1000 torog (~75 cents) to get to the restaurant and it cost me 2500(~1.80) to get back. And he told Zoloo it would cost me about 2000. So maybe he took the long way around because he knew I couldn't argue and charged me more for the same reason. An extra 40 cents isn't gonna break the bank for me so whatever.
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