Mongolia: Relief Goods sent to disaster affected areas

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia - The first shipment of relief goods from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) emergency relief left Ulaanbaatar today on its way to herders affected by the dzud disaster in Uvurkhangai aimag. In response to the Government of Mongolia's earlier request for assistance, a rapid four day assessment mission was undertaken in early March to Uvurkhangai aimag- the second most dzud-affected aimag in Mongolia, to assess the situation and needs of the herders. Mission participants included members of the OCHA, UN Agencies, Civil Defense Authority, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, International and National NGOs, and Reuters. Findings of that mission were published in the DZUD 2000 report, available on the website www.un-mongolia.mn/news/disaster. Based on the mission findings, the UN Agencies, Civil Defense Authority and the Governor of Uvurkhangai jointly decided to provide 900 severely affected herding households with emergency livestock and food relief assistance.
300 tons of hay and 200 tons of husk will be delivered to Sant, Bayan-Undur and Ulziit soums in Uvurkhangai during the next three days, which is then to be followed by 48 tons of flour; 6 tons of rice and millet; 2.4 tons of sugar and livestock medications next week. Purchase of the relief items was made possible through the generous donations of OCHA, the British Government and Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.