The ‘Dzud’ in the local language is the term for a multiple natural hazard, consisting of a summer drought followed by a heavy winter with snow, blizzards and freezing temperatures; the worst ‘Dzud’ in decades in the past weeks is hitting 19 or 21 of Mongolia’s provinces, with temperatures down to below minus 50 degrees Celsius, killing an estimated 2-million head of livestock, which is a source of income and survival of nearly two thirds of the population. Based on estimates of the International Red Cross and main United Nations agencies (from the World Health Organisation to the FAO – Food and Agricultural Organisation – which in the past days sent a team to the areas), the severe weather is threatening the livelihoods of over 20,000 herder families and putting them at risk of food insecurity. A statement released by the Red Cross, which mobilised over 14-thousand volunteers to coordinate aid, another 2-million head of livestock could die, directly threatening the survival of some 180-thousand nomads, including 72-thousand children, and already 52 inhabited areas are “verging on collapse”. Based on a survey of the worst-hit areas, the UN and Mongolian government launched an appeal for over $6-million in emergency aid needed over the next two or three months, but the financial loss caused by the ‘Dzud’ has already been estimated at over $60-million. According to experts, among the main consequences of the extremely rigid winter has been a mass movement of the population toward the cities, which could continue for months. A situaiton confirmed to MISNA by testimonies of the Consolata missionaries operating in Mongolia. “The people say they haven’t seen such a freezing winter in 30 years. It isn’t only a problem for the livestock (sheep, goats, camels, horses, cattle, yak) and herders, but also for the common people who are struggling to find a source of heat (coal and wood). The worst-affected are the families without a fixed income that live by the day. The state has mobilised to contain the disaster, but the aid is late and insufficient to meet the demands given to the vastness of the territory”, writes Father Ernesto Viscardi, superior of the Consolata missionaries in Mongolia. “Along the side of the road that takes from our province to the capital Ulaanbaatar you can see piles of dead livestock”, continues Fr. Giorgio Marengo in a correspondence from Arvaiheer, main city of the Uvurkhangai province, in central Mongolia. “In the suburban area where we live, some families live in a sort of hybrid situation between herding and urbanisation: they have little livestock that they bring to graze around Arvaiheer, but their ‘ger’ (in Mongolian tents or even yurta) are lined up with others in a sort of town. Many others don’t even have livestock and live in poverty; for them the main emergency is the freezing temperatures: to buy some coal or wood you need money, which many don’t have and end up burning plastic bottles and other trash they find on the streets of Arvaiheer”. Fr. Marengo specifies that in most of Mongolia herding is practiced according to ancient nomadic or semi-nomadic customs, depending on free grazing as a sole resource. “In normal years, even during the winter the livestock manage to find sufficient food to resist, scraping the little snow to feed on what is left of the grass. But when the snow reaches over 30-40cm, or even over a meter like this year, the animals literally remain trapped and entire herds risk dying”, concludes the missionary.
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