On 17 July 2009, severe flooding occurred in and around Ulanbataar, Mongolia, leaving at least 24 people dead and some 2,000 households affected –the numbers may rise as more information is received. People have lost their homes and possessions, and thousands of heads of livestock have died.
A sum of 240,000 Swiss francs (USD 224,000 or EUR 158,000) has been allocated from the International Federation’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund to support the Mongolian Red Cross Society in delivering immediate assistance to some 10,000 beneficiaries.
The IFRC’s Francis Markus is in Mongolia and over the coming days will share what he sees and learns while working with the Mongolian Red Cross Society (MRCS) to meet the needs of the flood survivors.
The grief is still raw in 19-year-old Gansukh’s face as he leads us into the yard where his father died when the torrent of flood water swept over the family’s tent. Because he was handicapped, his father was unable to escape in time.
Now, there is nothing left here except a brand new wooden latrine in one corner.
Gansukh and his family arrived in the capital only two years ago from the northern province of Darkhan. Like many internal migrants, they gravitated to this sprawling district of Bayan-Zurkh, a shantytown made up of nomad tents (or ger) and wooden houses creeping ever further up the barren hillsides.
Further down the muddy road, a young man puts the finishing touches to his new ger, while his two small children sit inside, as yet another heavy rain shower punctuates the afternoon.
A cluster of people from the neighbourhood gather around the water kiosk to fill up their buckets when the water is turned on at 4pm, and it’s obvious that there are many urgent issues still to be dealt with as one listens to their conversations.
A middle-aged couple, who say the husband is suffering from cancer, show photographs of their damaged ger and complain that they have not received assistance from the local government because they are registered in a different area.
Heartbreaking afternoon
We head off to visit the family which has been at the epicentre of this tragedy, losing three of their children to the flood waters, the youngest a six-month-old baby, whose body was only found a day later.
Nyamaa, a local Red Cross volunteer with nine years’ experience, seems to be everybody’s trusted auntie. She puts her arm around the surviving child, Bazarvaani, an impish-looking nine-year-old who shows us his injuries. He drifted for about a kilometer in the torrent of water, battered by all kinds of floating debris.
Inside the new ger, his father, Basaikhan, barely controlling his emotions and choking with grief, describes the funeral ceremonies, held only a few hours ago. His wife is staying with relatives, still in deep shock. He is concerned about Bazarvaani, who witnessed the entire tragedy.
It has been heartbreaking afternoon, because you can feel that this disaster has struck some of the most vulnerable people in this city, whose population has swelled to 1.3 million, or half of Mongolia’s inhabitants. Yet the internal migrants still pour in, driven from their home regions by poverty and the loss of livestock following several harsh winters.
Expanding Programmes
To bring these vulnerable groups much-needed assistance, the Mongolian Red Cross Society (MRCS) is expanding its social care programme significantly over the coming months, with funding from the European Union and the Finnish Red Cross.
Of course nothing can bring back Basaikhan’s lost children, but if anything positive can come out of this tragedy, it is perhaps a heightened awareness of the dangers that the changing climate is bringing with it. In 1966, when the last comparable floods occurred here, they were all centred around areas close to the river, not on higher ground, as was the case like this time.
Reflecting on this, MRCS volunteer Nyamaa says that “the Red Cross can help in mobilising these affected communities to play a proactive part in preparing themselves to cope better if this kind of disaster ever happens again.”