Mongolia in 1996: Fighting Fire and Ice

Abstract

It was a year of suffering and of hope for Mongolia. Buffeted by natural disasters and a cholera epidemic, Mongolia nevertheless turned an important political corner in 1996 with the electoral loss of the Monglian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), which had held power since the country's inception in 1921. The new coalition accelerated economic reform, creating hopes for better performance in the years ahead. Spurred by an almost snowless winter and fierce winds, a series of fires devastated much of the country from February through June. The government declared a state of emergency and requested international assistance. The fires killed 26 people and thousands of head of livestock, left 1,600 persons homeless, and caused significant, if still undetermined, economic and ecological damage as 102,000 sq. km of grasslands were burned. Unfortunately, artificial snowstorms created to put out the fires killed several more people,1 and dozens more died as the first rains caused unusual summer flooding. At least 10 people died of a cholera outbreak in August, causing the government to delay the start of the school year and place a quarantine around the two major cities of Darhan and Erdenet. This series of disasters challenged the country's resources, already stretched to the limit by a difficult transition from a communist economy.