Official visit of Mongolian Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh to the USA is continuing. PM U.Khurelsukh held a meeting with the representatives of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and got familiarized with the project plan on improving water supply of Ulaanbaatar city.
Senior Director and Practice Lead in the Water and Sanitation Division of the Department at the MCC Kumar Ranganathan said that water supply issue of Ulaanbaatar city has reached an alarming level. If citizens of Ulaanbaatar city continue to use underground and surface water without changing their consumption attitude, the city will run out of water in less than 20 years. Moreover, stream of Tuul River, the main source of drinking water is expected to diminish several times. Therefore, the MCC decided to render non-refundable financial support worth USD 350 million to the implementation of comprehensive project on improving water supply of Ulaanbaatar city within five years’ period. Mr Kumar Ranganathan expressed his hope that the implementation of the project will bring multilateral positive changes to Mongolian society and economy.
The project will be realized in three phases between 2019 and 2023. In the frames of the project, equipment to increase underground water reserve and filter the water will be installed at 50 locations around the city. Moreover, water recycling facility will be built with the purpose of using grey water in heating power plants of the city. Thus, heating power plant will be able to use 15 million cubic meters of grey water in its consumption per year.
Within the project, legal environment regarding water supply will be improved as well. It is also estimated that drinking water reservoir will be increased by 70 million cubic meters after installing water purifying technology and consumption system in water wells of ger districts.