MONGUN BOREN

The Mogur Aksi is a typical village in Tuva (NB: lots of pictures coming soon!)

...it is a very remote mountainous village of 700+ inhabitants lies in the south-west corner of Tuva Republic (Russian Federation) about 9km from the Mongolian border. It has the windiest weather in Tuva. All around the village are rivers and streams coming in from the high snow-capped peaks (4000m). The "Taiga" forest is very rich in timber and very wild wildlife.

The village lives off guarding the border and herding yak, cattle and sheep. The pastures are considered to be among the best in all of Tuva and the meat has a good reputation. One of the biggest issues is therefore cattle-rustling between Tuva and Mongolia, and more often between Altai and Mongolia (fwhich the Tuvans say they get the blame for).

The village is divided into 2 parts - by the river is the "lower" part, in which the school and clinic are located and the "upper" part on the hill. There is no running water up here apart from a communal standpipe powered (every now and then) by a diesel generator water-pump. When this breaks down due to age or lack of fuel everyone has to go with buckets to the river. During the freeze and thaw (winters last from November through to May) this is both arduous and dangerous. The village has a Russian doctor who took a 3-year contract to work there. She will leave in 6 months time leaving no medical worker for the population. There is also a small school.

Outside the village people live in traditional yurts (Ög) but inside they live in one-storey log-cabins made from local larch trees and roofed with corrugated iron. These are divided into rows of "streets" and the backs of the houses are known as "Toilet Street". In summer the smell is quite extreme because the pits are not dug deep enough.

It is 2 days drive west to Kyzyl, the capital, of which the first 90km take at least 1 day. East there is a road to Barnaul - the great industrial city located over the mountains in Siberian Altai - the road is better and is also more than 1 day's drive. The roads are dangerous and the bridges are worse. Many small rivers cut across the road and the bridges have not been repaired for years. There are no telephones in Mongun Boren, only a telegraph and the accuracy of the reception is variable, depending on which operator is tapping out the Morse.

Before the collapse of the CCCP there was a daily flight from the capital Kyzyl to the neighbouring town of 3000+ inhabitants called Mogur Aksi (90km west). Now there are none apart form emergency medical flights. There is no funds to repair these bridges. But there are plans to rebuild sections of the road from Altai to connect it to Mongolia. If this happens the road will pass through the village. If so, there has to be power, accommodation, food and other services as well as a diesel filling station.

There is also a plan to rebuild the bridges. The costs for this would be recouped with a toll-system administered by the people who built them./ This "private enterprise" model works well over the border in Altai region. To kick-start the process they need to pay something to pay the village youth to get things going.

Power is a big problem. The old diesel generator is noisy and smelly and it breaks down. Some people have tried to make their own windmills but these home-made contraptions always break down in the very windy conditions. Outside the village each yurt might benefit from small mobile windmills.

REQUIREMENTS

wind power - large and small water power - for small hydro-electric dams

communications - small, hand-held and something to connect to Kyzyl

building equipment - concrete mixer & bore-hole drilling + appropriate building technologies - insulation, diesel station etc.

medical and social advice & "know-how" school equipment - books, devices, training, equipment etc.

music department - instruments, scholarships etc. etc.

There is everything in Mongun Boren to sustain life. Water, food and one of the cleanest environments on the planet. But there are three problems: 1) bad inefficient modern technology 2) the erosion of traditional means of livelihood and 3) an almost complete collapse of investment in schools, roads and modern basics such as running water, canalisation and power.

The youth is bored and unable to work out a future. The old die young and drink their lives away. The average income there is amongst the lowest percentile in global terms. A population that has endured Feudalism for centuries and then sudden Soviet modernisation has been abandoned because modern economics dictates that they have no market value and they do not qualify for development aid.

If you have any ideas about how to help please email helping@yat-kha.com