Introduction
Due to its extensive mineral deposits consisting of coal, copper, gold, molybdenum, fluorspar, uranium, tin and tungsten Mongolia has witnessed a significant growth in extractive industries in the last two decades. A flow of foreign direct investment led to a rapid development of the extractive sector in Mongolia putting a considerable pressure on public health and health systems in mining areas. WHO Mongolia Country Office promptly responded to these challenges and became the first country office within the WHO system to introduce a programme on “Mining and Health”. The programme aims at developing a set of essential tools and a guideline on health impact assessment (HIA) in mining areas. As a result:
- the WHO Guideline on HIA in mining areas will be endorsed and replicated in other relevant countries;
- Mongolia will acquire the currently missing rules and regulations for conducting HIA within environmental impact assessment (EIA);
- and a new set of WHO tools for conducting HIA for artisanal miners will be developed and become available for Mongolia and other countries
Mining and Health
With the WHO support, on 1 July, 2014 for the first time a meeting on “Mining and Health” was jointly organized by the three ministries: the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Ministry of Nature, Environment and Green Development (MNEGD) and the Ministry of Mining (MoM). The meeting took place in the city of Dalanzadgad, the centre of the most affected by mining activities province of Umnugobi. Civil servants of the Umnugobi Governor’s Office, development partners and mining representatives have also attended the multi-stakeholder meeting.
A ”Mining and Health” meeting initiated by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Ministry of Nature, Environment and Green Development, Ministry of Mining and the WHO took place in the centre of Umnugobi province, city of Dalanzadgad. During the field trip to the “Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi” LLC open pit coal mine in order to observe mining activities
The meeting participants discussed and modified the draft Strategy on Mining and Health for 2015-2020. The general objective of this Strategy is to protect local population’s health in the mining areas, to strengthen capacity of local health sector confronted with growing demand on health care and to mitigate mining related negative impacts. The Strategy also aims to improve risk transparency and responses capacity and advance partnerships with all relevant stakeholders, including government, health professionals, businesses and private sector operators, international development agencies, and civil society for monitoring mining impacts on environment and health.
Recommendations on Cooperation among different sectors in Mongolia and in particular among the MoH, MNEGD, MoM and the Umnugobi’s Governor’s Office were adopted at the meeting. By endorsing the Recommendations on Cooperation the MoH, MoNEGD and MoM collectively confirmed to adhere to fundamental principles of sustainable development recognizing that economic development can and should actively promote and protect human health and well-being as well as ensure environmental protection.
WHO CO is aiding with publishing the compilation of meeting documents including presentations briefs, revised draft Strategy on Mining and Health for 2015-2020 and Recommendations on Cooperation.
A strong dust storm started suddenly during the field trip. During the storm objects located in one metre distance were not visible for a few minutes. At the “Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi” LLC open pit coal mine.
Health Impact Assessment
To strengthen national capacity in conducting health impact assessment (HIA) the WHO had implemented a pilot project in collaboration with the MoH, MNEGD, MoM and DFATD of the Canadian Government. The project aimed to enhance coverage of social issues addressed through Mongolia’s environmental regulations, in particular as they are applied in the mining sector. The specific objectives of the project were to:
- build capacity of environmental and health assessment regulators of central and local level to ensure adequate coverage of human health issues in Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) conducted in the mining sector;
- influence industry practice in Mongolia’s mining sector in relation to coverage of human health issues in environmental assessment;
- develop a case study on health in EIA that will inform the development of a WHO model guidance on health in EIA in the mining sector.
The WHO took a lead in organizing a 3-days-long capacity training among environmental and health assessment regulators in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Sports (MoHS), Ministry of Environment and Green Development (MoEGD), MoM, and the National Centre for Public Health (NCPH). The training was focused on ensuring an appropriate consideration of health issues at the different decision making points in the EIA cycle including screening, evaluation of terms of reference and review of impact assessment reports.
The main deliverables of this project implemented by WHO would be:
- Literature review of coverage of health in environmental impact assessment with a focus on mining sector in low and middle-income country settings
- WHO guidance notes on health in environmental impact assessment targeted to regulatory authorities, impact assessment practitioners, and mining project proponents
- WHO training materials on health in environmental impact assessment
- Case study and lessons learned from the Mongolian experience
The training was followed by a 12-days learning programme on Health Impact Assessment conducted by the WHO CO in cooperation with Canadian International Resources and Development Institute and the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research for public health workers and state inspectors in Dalanzadgad, Umnugobi. An overarching objective of the learning program was to create capacity for implementing, managing and evaluating health impact assessments within EIAs.
Artisanal Mining (ASM)
The WHO in partnership with the School of Public Health of Mongolia and Sustainable Artisanal Mining Project of the Swiss Development Cooperation Organization had executed a pilot project on addressing the health impacts of artisanal and small scale mining in Mongolia. The general objective of the project was to stimulate high-level inter-sectoral policy dialogue needed to address health concerns of individuals involved in artisanal and small-scale mining. The WHO led two main activities under this project:
- conducting a rapid assessment of the health situation of artisanal and small-scale miners and their families in Mongolia;
- organizing a high-level meeting to discuss the findings of this assessment and to agree on key elements to be included in a National Public Health Action Plan on ASM.
As a result:
- a WHO rapid survey tool for assessing the health situation of ASM miners and their families were developed and tested;
- a case example and model public health action plan for addressing the health impacts of ASM were developed and disseminated through WHO’s global initiative on health in the extractive industries.