Mongolia brings disaster risk centre stage
Mongolia faces a range of disaster threats including earthquakes, floods, forest fires and drought. One weather-related phenomenon unique to the country is the Dzud, caused by the twin impacts of drought in the summer and severe freezing weather and storms in the winter. One-third of Mongolia's population depends entirely on pastoral farming and the loss of pasture caused by Dzuds, leads to widespread starvation amongst livestock, devastating the herds and livelihoods of nomadic herders.
On the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar lies the suburb of Tahilt. Over the years this informal settlement has grown to accommodate an expanding population of herder families who, having lost their livestock to successive Dzuds, abandoned their traditional lifestyle and migrated to the capital in search of work.
Since her husband died two years ago, 67-year-old Dorjpagma has been living in Tahilt. Her family were amongst the 157,000 herders affected by the 2016-2017 Dzud when more than 1.1 million livestock were lost.
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Ulaanbaatar
