Yahoo News 12 May 10;
GENEVA (AFP) – The UN warned on Wednesday that a drought which has devastated Mongolia during one of the worst winters for decades could continue for another year, as it appealed for 18.1 million dollars in aid.
UN interim humanitarian coordinator Rana Flowers said the aid appeal presented to donors in Geneva would assist nearly 800,000 Mongolians, mainly herders and their families who have lost the livestock they depend on their survival.
The impoverished landlocked nation is still grappling with a severe winter after a dry summer, a combination known locally as "dzud".
Fifteen of the country's 21 provinces have declared a state of disaster and another four are on the brink of doing so as the extreme cold and lack of rain continues well into spring, Flowers said.
"At this point in time we are considering that we're at the end of the beginning of the dzud," she told journalists.
"We are predicting that the dzud will continue until this time next year."
The last major "dzud" occurred over three straight winters at the beginning of the 2000s, and tens of thousands of herders who lost everything moved to the capital Ulan Bator in search of work.
However, some 8.1 million livestock -- 18 percent of the country's total -- have died so far in the latest episode, about twice as many as recorded over a similar period during the most severe dzud, Flowers said.
Meanwhile infant mortality increased by 35 to 40 percent in the affected areas over the winter, and by 60 percent in one province, according to the United Nations.
Herding is a backbone of livelihoods for 30 percent of the population, and also provides food and energy from animal dung fires for families who live on the Mongolian steppe.
Flowers emphasised that the extent and duration of the cold was exceptional, with animals used to sharp winters unable to reach beneath the deep frozen snow.
"It really is an example of climate change at work," she claimed.
In late March the international Red Cross launched an appeal for 935,000 dollars, accounting for 4.5 million dead livestock at the time.
Unemployment soared as destitute herders headed for the capital in the wake of the previous dzud. Aid agencies fear thousands more migrants could follow in the aftermath of the current disaster.
Silent Spring For Mongolians After Winter Kills Herds
Jargal Byambasuren, PlanetArk 13 May 10;
The winter camps of southern Mongolia are quiet during this year's breeding season, after an unusually harsh winter wiped out herds and left nomadic families with little but debt to their name.
The bitter winter killed an estimated 8 million animals, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), leaving exhausted, poverty-stricken herders struggling to survive and increasing demands on Mongolia's already-stretched national budget.
"If a market burns down, the government offers money as compensation. Then why can't the government help the herders now?" asked Nyamiin Zagdsuren, a 39-year old herder, who lost more than two thirds of his 580 animals this winter.
He is counting on the cashmere combed from his remaining 140 goats to tide over his family, and to pay back a $360 bank loan he took out to clothe and buy school supplies for his three children.
The combination of a dry summer, followed by heavy snow and low winter temperatures is known in Mongolian as a 'zud'.
Roughly one-quarter of the country's 3 million people are nomads, while others also raise livestock in fixed settlements.
In Mongolia's southern Dundgobi province, about three-quarters of nomads now live below the poverty line, from half before the winter struck. Most herders are left with less than 250 animals.
At least 335 families in Dundgobi lost all their animals over the winter as temperatures dropped to 40 degrees Celsius below zero or colder.
"We have had so many sleepless nights, especially when a blizzard struck, or it started to snow. There was no time to change clothes, let alone sleep," said herder Tsegmediin Purevsuren, whose family is left with 92 animals out of a herd that once numbered 800 head.
"You would spend all night checking the sheds to make sure no animal was buried in the snow. If one was, you dug it out. The herders have worked without rest, from dusk till dawn, in all weather."
CASH FOR CORPSES
Snow was still falling in Dundgobi province on May 8, signaling that this zud, the worst for several years, is far from finished.
Herders said a decade-long drought has depleted the grass their horses need, while many have difficulty affording the gas for their motorcycles.
Some herders are scraping up some cash by burying their dead livestock. The UNDP promises 870 tugrug (0.63 U.S. cents) for each goat or sheep and 2300 ($1.66) for each cow, horse or camel buried in pits.
The project has helped to clear about a third of the carcasses from three of the most severely affected provinces, preventing disease and water contamination, the UNDP resident representative Akbar Usmani said.
"I'd like to appeal to the international communities for additional support to the herders in order that we can meet the needs of them at this critical time," he said.
"As you have noticed there are herders who have lost close to 90 percent of their herds. In fact there are cases also where the entire livestock that they had has been wiped out," he said.
(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
