Have you ever been around burning coal? Well, burning coal creates a thick smoke that fills the air. Imagine thousands of yurts creating smoke all day long for three months. That is what life in the city is like, and this is why pollution in Ulaanbaatar is such a huge problem.
This is a hard problem to fix because, in order to lower pollution, people need to live in warmer houses. Thus, solutions need to be created to either make poor families less poor or give families who live in yurts warmer houses. Basically, solutions need to be made that prevent families from needing to burn so much coal. There are many organizations in Ulaanbaatar that are working very hard to make pollution less of a problem. Eco Town is an amazing organization that is experimenting with building cheap houses that are warmer than current yurts. It is building a prototype yurt for a family in the Yurt District that has great insulation and a very efficient electric heater that will prevent the family that lives in it from having to burn any coal. If the experiment turns out to be a sustainable solution, many more families in the Yurt District can hopefully move into Eco Town Yurts.
