A. Zoljargal, Mongolian Red Cross, Ulaanbataar
The anxiety and distress are unmistakable in Baasanragchaa’s face as the 56-year-old herder recounts the effects of the unusually severe weather that has dominated Mongolia since late 2009.
“In the autumn we counted more than 400 head of livestock, including sheep, goats and cattle, but we’ve lost over half of them and those that have survived look so skinny, they may not survive even though we’re feeding them with hay and fodder,” he says.
All around his family’s encampment in Arkhangai province, some 470 kilometres west of the capital Ulaanbaatar, the snow is littered with the carcasses of animals, being gnawed at by dogs and pecked by birds.
Affected communities
It took more than an hour for a joint assessment team from the Mongolian Red Cross Society and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to visit the affected communities, travelling a little more than ten kilometres from the nearest road. The journey took so long because of the blanket of snow covering the countryside.
With government figures putting the numbers of dead livestock at more than one million and unofficial reports saying the figure could be as high as double that, the IFRC has released 400,000 Swiss francs (380,000 US dollars) from its Disaster Relief Emergency Fund to help the most vulnerable herder families.
Some 1,200 households in the five worst-hit provinces are receiving emergency food supplies including rice, flour, cooking oil, salt, tea and sugar, as well as warm clothing and felt boots. Some of the funding will also support trained volunteers delivering basic health messages and psychosocial support to families, many of whom have been cut off for at least two months.
Needs are great
The needs for such support are great, says Dr Amgaa Oyungerel, the IFRC’s regional health coordinator in East Asia, who travelled with one of the assessment teams to the northern province of Khuvsgul.
“Local doctors are only provided with ten litres of fuel per month, which is calculated on the basis that it’s enough to get around on a motorbike to see their patients,” says Oyungerel. But using a motorbike amid the current extreme cold and heavy snow is virtually impossible and the fuel allowance does not carry the doctors to any but the closest patients, if they have to use a jeep or a car.
So Mongolian Red Cross volunteers are trying to bridge the gap as best they can, and their efforts can make a huge difference. “They can serve as information channels, even on such simple but vital things as how to treat frostbite, with warm compresses – not as many people think by rubbing snow on it,” Oyungerel continues.
Slow-onset disaster
Even so, the threat which the herders face is complex and the effects of this slow-onset disaster are expected to linger for many months to come. Thousands of families are already on the move at a time when they would normally be settled in camps for the winter.
Many more are likely to migrate not just to the Ger districts or shantytowns of Ulaanbaatar but to much smaller urban centres as well. As new needs emerge for them in the coming weeks and months, Mongolian Red Cross Society’s social care programme, supported by the European Union through the Finnish Red Cross, will be essential for even years to come.