City officials touched on lighting problems in the city, implementation of the National Program to Introduce Information Technology to State Archives and Records Management, incentives for top schools and kindergartens in Ulaanbaatar, access to educational institutes, and measures to take for preventing influenza-like illness (ILI), also known as acute respiratory infection.

“People spend nearly 90 percent of their life indoors, breathing the air in offices and homes. Many factors can degrade indoor air quality such as outdoor air pollution, use of stoves, poor sanitation and hygiene practices, smoking, and air ventilation. Exposure to carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds from these factors can cause pneumonia, low birth weight, and lung cancer,” stated L.Tumurbaatar, the Head of the Ulaanbaatar Health Office.

L.Tumurbaatar noted that quite a large sum of funds are required for taking preventive measures for ILI and that health organizations aren’t able to generate necessary funds on their own.

“We need a budget for purchasing air cleaning devices intended to remove pollutants from indoor air and prepare additional beds at hospitals and clinics.”

Head of Policy Planning Department at the Ulaanbaatar Mayor’s Office G.Ulziibayar reported that 70 percent of projects in the Ulaanbaatar Economic and Social Development Guidelines for 2017 have been completed. He reminded that there are still two months left for completing the projects and updated on the situation on guidelines for 2018.

“Requirements, criteria, targets, and required funds for the 2018 guidelines have been developed in accordance with the 2016 Government Resolution No. 249. In total, 489 measures, including ongoing projects that will resume next year and completely new projects, have been planned within the scope of 26 targets. We have planned many social projects to pay more attention to public development in 2018,” G.Ulziibayar said.

At the end of the meeting, Ulaanbaatar Mayor S.Batbold told his council to plan out more interesting and innovative projects for next year and urgently take ILI preventive measures before more people get affected due to colder weather.

“The Ulaanbaatar Health Organizations must take action against ILI as soon as possible. Health officers of every district need to study procurement opportunities for air cleaning devices that reduce household air pollution,” he instructed.

Officials agreed to meet again this week to review the issues.