Ulaanbaatar, November 30, 2021 - As part of the Industrial Pretreatment and Pollution Control Sub-activity under the Water Sector Sustainability Activity, a total of 12 tasks planned in the Industrial Pretreatment Plan approved by the Government of Mongolia on March 3, 2021, will be supported and implemented with the Compact funds. In order to discuss the roles of the state-owned and municipal laboratories in the procedures of wastewater sampling, analysis, pollution control and detection, imposing water pollution fee, the Millennium Challenge Account- Mongolia (MCA-Mongolia) organized a consultative meeting with state-owned and municipal laboratories on November 30, 2021, at the conference hall of the Fresh Water Resources and Nature Conservation Center.

Representatives of the Water Agency, an Implementing Agency of the Government, National Reference Laboratory for Food Safety of the General Agency for Specialized Inspection, Central Laboratory of Environment and Metrology of the National Agency Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring, USUG Central Water Laboratory, Central laboratory of the Metropolitan Inspection Agency, Central Water Control Laboratory of “Mongol-Us” State-Owned Enterprise, Central Geological Laboratory State-Owned Enterprise attended the meeting.

During the consultative meeting, laboratories discussed common challenges such as staffing, high workload and limited funding for operation and maintenance. Laboratories often lose their skilled professionals to private entities where the salary packages are higher. Despite the increase in operating costs each year, annual budgets are still based on outdated cost estimates.

The Water Agency presented on the implementation of the Law on Water Pollution Fee, highlighted the importance of engaging laboratories in furthering the enforcement of the law, and highlighted the need for increased availability and access to services offered by wastewater testing laboratories

In addition, discussions were held on the contribution of laboratories to the pretreatment plan and the enforcement of the Law on Water Pollution Fee. MCA-Mongolia introduced in detail the requirements for the supply of laboratory equipment and the selection criteria for the laboratory and stressed the need to reach a consensus.

Participants emphasized the importance of selecting the most appropriate laboratory without compromising this compact funding for laboratory equipment. The participants noted that this was the first time that the laboratories gathered together to discuss issues and seek collective solutions, and thanked MCA-Mongolia for hosting the consultative meeting.