STANDING COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT MEETS

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, /MONTSAME/ The Parliamentary Standing committee on environment, food and agriculture aims to pass two draft laws on land and on food, at next spring session of parliament. About it said on Monday D.Baldan-Ochir, a head of the Standing committee,and B.Bat-Erdene, G.Bayarsaikhan, D.Terbishdagva and R.Rash MPs. The draft law on land regulates the mining and pasture for animal husbandry, utilization of pastures by herders, terms of use and payments, and solves land conflicts in localities and in the city. The draft package law on land has been worked out by Su.Batbold, E.Bat-Uul and Ts.Sedvanchig MPs. They hope that their draft will be passed at the upcoming spring session. It was postponed several times at the autumn session. Another working group, headed by D.Terbishdagva MP, is running over a draft amendment to the law on food. This draft law has been elaborated with inclusion of the food consumption growth worldwide. It is expected that the food consumption will double along with world population. In addition, the committee has been working on draft package laws on environment protection, on payment for exploiting natural resources, on soil protection and on prevention of desertification. The Standing committee consider that they must be passed as soon as possible, for the water resources are decreasing dramatically, according to a report from the Water Authority. It has been estimated that 551 rivers, 483 lakes and 1,879 springs have dried out. B.Khuder