By D.JARGALSAIKHAN

Ulaanbaatar and London have two similarities and one dissimilarity.

The first similarity

Capital cities of both Mongolia and England suffered air pollution that harmed health and cost lives of its dwellers. Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution level has beaten that of London 60 years ago and has been the most air-polluted city of the world for many winters. People living downtown are breathing six times toxic air than normal and those who live in ger districts of Ulaanbaatar are breathing air that is 18 times worse than normal. The Great Smog of London, the capital city of Foggy Albion, took 4000 lives due to fume from incomplete combustion of coal that came out of every single chimney in the city on December 5-9, 1952, when London had one of the coldest temperatures ever. In the next couple of days, 8000 people died of air pollution. Harmful particles and gases such as sulfur and nitrogen in Ulaanbaatar’s air today has become the same as that of London 60 years ago. Even though the government of Mongolia acknowledges this fact, they cannot do anything about it. The press has repeatedly been announcing that this disaster, air pollution, is harming health of thousands and babies and children are suffering from every respiratory disease out there.  

The other similarity

Decisions regarding solution of this problem that England and Mongolia came up with are similar. In order to remove sources of air pollution, the parliament of England passed and implemented a law on clean air. In the framework of this law, a lot of measures against air pollution were taken including the establishment of “air control zones” and only allowing use of washed coal, electricity and natural gas. These measures slowed down air pollution and, consequently, cleared the air completely. They also moved power stations that burnt coal away from the city and increased the height of chimneys. The parliament of Mongolia also passed an act to decrease air pollution of Ulaanbaatar by half, reduce emissions from burning coal and change old stoves with 70,000 newer and lower-emission stoves. Mongolia received US aid money through Millennium Challenge Corporation. Even though there was a fund of MNT 8 billion as planned, members of parliament were pretty upset when they heard that only 5 percent of stoves were replaced by the third week of September, 2011. The parliament considered that the implementation of the resolution to decrease Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution was not good enough and they once again instructed related offices to “intensify their work”.       
 
Difference in principles

There is always a discussion, sometimes even a strike, between related parties before passing a law in England. When a law is passed, everyone obeys it. The administrative bureaucracy ensures the implementation of law. But, in Mongolia, law is passed, it is violated and some people even misuse it for their own good. For example, what is the point in instructing those offices again and again when they clearly had nothing done after a whole year since the resolution was passed by the parliament? Who needs it? Maybe those officials need it to turn a blind eye on the matter.    
Why do they not let the public know who is not doing his work and why? They keep a secret from people: where did those billions of tugrugs go? What is the reason behind that the government is afraid of reporting to people? The reason is that, if spending of  public and city budget is made public, many politicians will have to be charged. It will be a true “nightmare” for city administrative officials if spending of budget including names of companies and amounts of money they spent is made public and supervised by a third party representing the public.       
It is just one of many consequences and clear examples of this situation, where it has become unclear who passes laws and who implements them in Mongolia. The difference in principles between England and Mongolia is that a law is implemented once it is passed in England, but a law is made forgotten by certain people instead of implementing it in Mongolia. Who benefits from today’s system where no one is responsible for anything and the city’s mayor is not even elected by people but by politicians?     

Translated by B.Amar