Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in ... - SASANet

Annex 3: Social Accountability and Environmental Protection:
The Ongi River Movement 72
THE BIRTH, GROWTH, AND MISSION OF A COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATION
The Ongi River Movement began in 2001 in response to the environmental degradation of the Ongi River
System in central Mongolia. The river system originally spanned more than 435 kilometers from the
Khangai Mountains through the Khangai Steppe into the Gobi Desert, and fed into Ulaan (“Red”) Lake,
which covered an area of 175 square kilometers. Historically, the Ongi sustained the lives of more than
100,000 people and more than 1 million livestock (TAF 2004c). The Ongi now flows only 100
kilometers, less than a quarter of its natural length, whereas the lake had completely dried up by 1995. 73
As Mongolia depends largely on surface water (70 percent of its water reserves), the depletion of this
river system has serious implications for the region. It has led to a shortage of drinking water for more
than 57,000 people and their animals. As a result pastoralists have been forced to herd their livestock in
other aimags, causing serious problems for pastureland management in other regions as well.
The driving force behind the movement was the chair of the Citizen Representative Khural in the
Saikhan-Ovoo soum. In 2001, he gathered residents of eight soums from the three neighboring aimags
through which the Ongi flows in a shared mission to reverse the drying up of the Ongi River System and
restore Ulaan Lake. 74 Initially he gathered several dozen people to discuss the matter. This was followed
by a broader campaign that drew governors, leaders of other local khurals, and ordinary citizens from all
eight soums to a meeting later that year. Local soum governments committed a total of MT 100,000 to
support the emerging movement, which then registered with the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs as
a nongovernmental organization. Today, ORM is at once a community-based organization and part of a
growing environmental movement with broad appeal beyond its region.
The chair of the ORM has held his post since his election in 2001. In addition to the chair, the
organization has four other paid staff positions: an executive director, a manager, a program officer, and a
driver. ORM’s home base remains Saikhan-Ovoo soum. It is headed by the executive director who served
as a volunteer until the end of 2004. In this and the seven other soums where the ORM operates, there are
a total of eight branch offices run by volunteers. The organization also has a small, one-room liaison
office in Ulaanbaatar to facilitate public campaigns, advocacy, policy dialogue, and fundraising. The chair
operates from this office but commutes frequently to the river basin. The movement further benefits from
assistance from the director of the Center for Land, Forest and Water Resource Management at the
Mongolian State Agriculture University, who acts as both an adviser and researcher for ORM on a pro
bono basis.
Over the last four years, ORM has expanded its objectives to achieve its initial mission to revive the Ongi
River Basin. As part of its efforts to promote the restoration and rehabilitation of the Ongi River System,
its 2004 program included several other objectives: 1) sustainable community-based organizations that
care for the environment; 2) informed and committed local citizens who monitor and protect the
environment; 3) transparent local government structures that ensure a healthy environment; and 4) an
interactive relationship between local governments and CBOs that cooperate with and support each other.
72 Research for this case study was conducted primarily by Jeff Thindwa, Senior Social Development Specialist, World Bank.
73 In Saikhan Ovoo, for example, the river no longer runs, although a World Water Action report recorded its water flow at 1.8
cubic meters per second in 1950.
74 The three aimags in which the ORM works are Uvorkhangai, Umnigobi, and Dundgobi; the eight soums are Uyanga,
Zuunbayan-Ulaan, Taragt, Arvakheer, Bayangol, Saikhan-Ovoo, Bulgan, and Mandal-Ovoo.
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