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Water Resources in Mongolia
and Their Current State
E. Zh. Garmaeva*, M. V. Bolgovb, A. A. Ayurzhanaeva,
and B. Z. Tsydypova
aBaikal In sti tute of Na ture Man age ment, Si be rian Branch, Rus sian Acad emy of Sci ences,
ul. Sakh’yanovoi 6, Ulan-Ude, 670047 Rus sia
bWa ter Prob lems In sti tute, Rus sian Acad emy of Sci ences, ul. Gubkina 3, Mos cow, 119333 Rus sia
*e-mail: garend1@yandex.ru
Re ceived June 4, 2019
Re vised June 25, 2019
Ac cepted June 25, 2019
Ab stract—The in land lo ca tion of Mon go lia and its rel a tively high gen eral el e va tion above sea level
com bined with the arid cli mate fa vor the for ma tion of the spe cific hy dro log i cal re gime of wa ter bod ies
which are highly vul ner a ble to cli mate changes. The for ma tion fea tures and the cur rent state of wa ter
re sources in Mon go lia are con sid ered. A brief de scrip tion of the main wa ter bod ies is given. The avail -
able es ti mates of the im pact of anthropogenic fac tors and cli mate changes on some com po nents of wa ter
bal ance are dis cussed.
DOI: 10.3103/S1068373919100030
Keywords: Mongolia, water resources, water regime, climate change, water consumption, rivers, lakes,
glaciers
IN TRO DUC TION
The inland location of Mongolia in the center of the Asian continent with the limited influence of
oceanic moisture-bearing air masses and the high elevation above sea level (900–1500 m) determines the
specific features of climate in this vast region (1.566 ´ 106 km2) playing a crucial role in the formation of
water resources. The climate of Mongolia is sharply continental, with significant annual and daily
variations in air temperature and with the inhomogeneous seasonal distribution of precipitation. The cold
season is long and dry; the summer is short: it is dry in the first half and rainy in the second half (July and
August). Most of water resources of this territory are formed during this period. In mountains, climate
continentality slightly decreases but the amount of precipitation significantly increases, i.e., the clearly
pronounced altitude zoning is registered in the runoff variations with height. In the annual course, the
precipitation minimum falls on one of the winter months and the maximum falls on July–August. The
largest amount of precipitation is observed in mountains (500–600 mm); in the south of the country in the
Gobi Desert, precipitation is not observed at all in some years. The rivers in the region are characterized by
the flood regime of runoff.
WATER RESOURCES IN MONGOLIA
The surface water resources of Mongolia belong to three large basins: the Arctic and Pacific oceans and
the Central Asian Internal Drainage Basin which occupies 65% of the country territory (Fig. 1). The main
waterway is the Selenga River whose head is situated in the Khangai Mountains; it flows into Lake Baikal
at the distance of 1024 km from its source. The Baikal ecosystem state largely depends on the Selenga
River water content [22, 24]. The analysis and assessment of the current state of Mongolian water resources
are also topical in view of the fact that Mongolian specialists consider a number of projects on the Selenga
River runoff control which presuppose the construction of reservoirs both on the Selenga River tributaries
(Orkhon and Eg) and in the main channel. The consequences of the implementation of these hydroeconomic
ISSN 1068-3739, Russian Meteorology and Hydrology, 2019, Vol. 44, No. 10, pp. 659–666. Ó Allerton Press, Inc., 2019.
Russian Text Ó The Author(s), 2019, published in Meteorologiya i Gidrologiya, 2019, No. 10, pp. 40–49.
659
activities for the hydrological regime and for the aquatic ecosystem of the Baikal region have not been
explored so far. One of the places where the climate change is most strongly pronounced is Mongolia. Thus,
average annual surface air temperature over the period of 1961 to 2009 rose by 2.1°C [28].
In total, 135 gaging stations operate on Mongolian rivers, 1/3 of them have the observation series of more
than 30 years. Unfortunately, data of hydrometric observations on the territory of Mongolia are character-
ized by low accuracy and irregularity. The observation network inhomogeneously cover the territory,
reference publications are absent. All these extremely hamper the assessment and the calculation of the
hydrological regime elements. Despite the limited hydrometeorological database under the wide variety of
natural conditions in the country, many researchers have rather successfully worked on studying its water
problems in different years. The published papers by N.T. Kuznetsov [7], V.A. Semenov and B. Myag-
marzhav [9], M.V. Bolgov [1, 2], A.V. Khristoforov [10, 11], G. Daava [15, 16, 18, 23], D. Oyuunbaatar
[19], N.S. Kasimov and S.R. Chalov [6, 13], E.Zh. Garmaev [4, 24] etc. can be noted.
Run off for ma tion con di tions for Mon go lian rivers. The fea tures of ter rain and cli mate of Mon go lia
caused an ex tremely inhomogeneous hy dro graphic net work. The high est den sity of the river net work
(0.18–0.35 km/km2) is ob served on the slopes of the Khangai and Khentii moun tains, and the small est den -
sity (<0.05 km/km2) is reg is tered in the desert re gion.
The main hydrological feature of the territory of Mongolia is the altitude zoning in the variation in
hydrometeorological parameters, it is characterized by the presence of zones of formation and dissipation
of runoff. Starting from the certain altitude, seepage losses in channels of transit rivers significantly
exceeds the lateral inflow caused by rains and snowmelt. The mentioned feature of hydrological regime
allowed some authors [2, 3, 8] to consider the analyzed territory as the set of mountain-plain complexes. As
approaching the exit from the mountains, the absolute value of runoff in the river system increases in
accordance to the catchment area growth. Simultaneously with the runoff increase, as approaching the exit
from the mountains, the specific flow decreases, which is explained by the loss growth.
When reaching the alluvial piedmont plain, the formation conditions of surface runoff change qualita-
tively. The thickness of fan and talus deposits (with a significant and failing absorption capacity) drama-
tically increases; as a result, the value of water flow in the river channel continuously decreases to zero as
moving down the piedmont plain. The zone of runoff dissipation is located here. Close to the valley bottom,
groundwater of the piedmont plain often wedges out: the secondary active zone is observed. Then the runoff
can insignificantly change for some time, after that it completely dissipates in the intermountain hollows
and foothills.
The au thor of [12] pro posed the hy dro log i cal zon ing of Mon go lia based on the idea of the ex is tence of
moun tain-plain com plexes. Four hy dro log i cal prov inces are dis tin guished: the Altai, Khangai-Khentii,
East Mon go lian, and Gobi-Altai ones. Then, based on the ap proach con sid er ing the val ues of so called
zonal run off, the prob lem of de tect ing the bound ary of the zone of for ma tion and dis si pa tion of run off is
solved.
When an a lyz ing the hy dro log i cal re gime of moun tain rivers, the value of run off can be es ti mated by
solv ing the in verse prob lem for mu lated as fol lows: us ing data on run off at the out lets of big and me dium
rivers, it is nec es sary to re veal its altitudinal dis tri bu tion, i.e., to solve the prob lem of zonal run off.
RUSSIAN METEOROLOGY AND HYDROLOGY Vol. 44 No. 10 2019
660 GARMAEV et al.
Fig. 1. The scheme of the hydrographic network of Mongolia. (1) Runoff formation zone; (2) runoff dissipation zone; (I)
Arctic Ocean basin; (II) Pacific Ocean basin; (III) Central Asian Internal Drainage basin.
In the pres ence of al ti tude zon ing of nat u ral com plexes, the fol low ing de pend ence is used to in di cate the
zonality of hy dro log i cal char ac ter is tics:
Yfy
ii
=S
where Y is the runoff normal; fi is the relative area of the altitude zone; yi is the zonal runoff (the runoff from
the ith altitude zone).
If sev eral sta tions mea sur ing Y are avail able, there is a sys tem of equa tions
Yfy
ii
i
111
=å,,,
Yfy
, ii
i
222
=å,,(1)
...................................
Yfy
mmimi
i
=å,,.
As suming that yk, i = yp, i for any i, k, p, the sys tem is sim pli fied:
Yfy
ii
i
11
=å,,
Yfy
, ii
i
22
=å,(2)
...................................
Yfy
mmii
i
=å,
or, in the matrix form,
YAy=(3)
where A is the matrix with the elements fi, j.
The presence of the zones of formation and dissipation of runoff in the analyzed landscapes means
that, when solving system (3), the values of zonal runoff for the lower altitude zones should have negative
values. System (3) is ill-conditioned, and the inverse problem is ill-posed (according to A.N. Tikhonov).
In view of this, the system of equations (3) was solved by the regularization method. In this case, the
Tikhonov’s functional for the system of first-order linear algebraic equations will be written as:
MyAYfyYx
jiij
i
n
j
n
i
i
n
aa(,,).
,
=-
é
ë
êù
û
ú+
===
ååå
11
2
2
1
(4)
The parameter a is determined from the conditions r(Aya, Yd) = d. The number r(Aya, Yd) is called the
residual of equation Ay = Yd on the element y.
Based on equation (4), the above problem on the zonal runoff is solved for a number of Mongolian
regions distinguished following the principle of mountain-plain complexes.
When solv ing sys tem (3) by the reg u lar iza tion method, it should be un der stood that start ing from the
cer tain el e va tion, the reg u lar ized so lu tion goes to the neg a tive zone. The pres ence of the run off dis si pa tion
zone leads to the fact that in this case the so lu tion to sys tem (3) is not al ready the zonal run off but a cer tain
bal ance. The zero value of this bal ance cor re sponds to the equal ity of the lat eral in flow and loss in the chan -
nel. The al ti tude cor re spond ing to this value of the bal ance is con sid ered as the bound ary of the zones of
for ma tion and dis si pa tion of run off. The run off dis si pa tion zone can be also called the zone of chan nel loss.
The value of the reg u lar iza tion pa ram e ter a was as signed fol low ing the re sid ual prin ci ple. The er ror was
taken roughly equal to 10%. Hav ing lim ited the run off for ma tion zone within each dis tin guished re gion, we
get its gen eral dis tri bu tion in Mon go lia with ac count of geobotanic and other con di tions (Fig. 1). The high -
est lo ca tion of the bound ary of the zones of for ma tion and dis si pa tion of run off (2100 m) cor re sponds to the
most arid re gions; in more hu mid re gions (the Kharaa-Kherlen area) this bound ary drops to 1400 m. As a
rule, the range with the larg est run off val ues cor re sponds to the for est-steppe and steppe zones.
Water resources of Mongolia and their current state. The resources of surface water in Mongolia are
distributed as follows: most of it is contained in lakes (500 km3), and their content in glaciers is 19.4 km3 [15,
16]. River water makes up 34.6 km3, 30.6 km3 of which is formed on the territory of Mongolia and about 4
km3, on the territories of the neighboring countries [18]. The groundwater resources of Mongolia are
RUSSIAN METEOROLOGY AND HYDROLOGY Vol. 44 No. 10 2019
WATER RESOURCES IN MONGOLIA AND THEIR CURRENT STATE 661
estimated at 10.8 km3 [17]. Due to the fact that the natural conditions in Mongolia are diverse, the river
network and lakes are distributed very inhomogeneously (Fig. 1).
During the modern period, the Mongolian rivers are in a low-water phase which has continued since the
second half of the 1990s. For this period, a trend towards the water runoff increase has been observed on the
country rivers since the 1970s, and in 1993 their maximum total runoff was equal to 78.4 km3. After that,
the river water content started decreasing and reached the minimum of 16.7 km3 in 2002. In 2015, the total
runoff of Mongolian rivers was equal to 22.7 km3, that is, by 11.9 km3 below the average long-term volume
(Fig. 2).
Run off of Mon go lian rivers on the bor der with Rus sia. The transboundary rivers of Mon go lia are the
Selenga, Onon, Tes rivers and some other small wa ter ob jects. The length of the Onon, Kherlen, and Tes
rivers is 1032, 1090, and 757 km, re spec tively, their catch ment areas are 96200, 116400, and 30900 km2,
re spec tively. The hy dro graphs of these rivers have max ima dur ing the warm sea son which are caused by
the prev a lence of rain fall run off [19].
Al most 67% of the to tal catch ment area of the Selenga River equal to 447060 km2 is sit u ated on the ter -
ri tory of Mon go lia. This part of the Selenga River ba sin oc cu pies only 19% of the area of the whole coun -
try; how ever, ~75% of pop u la tion lives there, and al most all in dus try is con cen trated in this re gion. The
pop u la tion den sity in the Selenga River catch ment is the high est, 4.9 peo ple per km2, whereas the re spec -
tive value for the en tire coun try is 1.5 peo ple per km2. This is the main eco nomic re gion of the coun try,
where ~80% of in dus trial gross pro duc tion, 80–85% of grain crops, and 75–80% of po tato and veg e ta bles is
pro duced. The live stock pop u la tion of about 20 ´ 106 (1/3 of its to tal pop u la tion) is ob served here. These
val ues are needed to es ti mate the val ues of ir re vers ible run off loss, in par tic u lar, to ob tain the pro jec tions
(sce nario-based es ti mates) of wa ter avail abil ity both for Mon go lia and Rus sia.
In general, the Selenga River water content varies in a wide range: from the beginning of observations till
now (1934–2018) the average long-term runoff volume at the outlfall near Mostovoi settlement was equal to
27.8 km3; the maximum annual runoff volume over the whole observation period (46.7 km3) was registered
in 1973, and the minimum one (16.1 km3) was observed in 2002. The record maximum water flow of the
Selenga River over all years of observations is 7620 m3/s, and the minimum is 30.6 m3/s (it is interesting
that both extremes were registered in 1936). In the recent two decades, the Selenga River basin has been in
a low-water phase, the water runoff volume for this period amounted to 21.9 km3 only (Fig. 3).
RUSSIAN METEOROLOGY AND HYDROLOGY Vol. 44 No. 10 2019
662 GARMAEV et al.
Fig. 2. Vari a tions in the to tal annual river run off in Mon go lia [15].
Fig. 3. The av er age an nual vol ume of the Selenga River run off (the out let near Mostovoi set tle ment).
The long-term vari a tions in the Selenga River run off on the bor der with Rus sia are char ac ter ized by a
rather high value of the first autocorrelation co ef fi cient that in di cates a high prob a bil ity of du ra ble
low-water (or high-water) pe ri ods.
The hydrochemical pa ram e ters of the Selenga River on the ter ri tory of Mon go lia are rep re sented by data
of ob ser va tions at the out let in Zuunburen lo cated 503 km away from the mouth and 100 km away from the
state bor der. In this seg ment of the river (up to the bor der), the larg est Selenga River trib u tary on the ter ri -
tory of Mon go lia flows into it from the right bank: this is the Orkhon River which makes sig nif i cant
changes in the chem i cal com po si tion of the main river wa ter. The av er age long-term an nual wa ter flow at
the Selenga River out let in Zuunburen is 251 m3/s, whereas the re spec tive value for the Orkhon River at the
out let in Sukhe-Bator is 129 m3/s. Rou tine hydrochemical ob ser va tions are not con ducted on the Selenga
River af ter the con flu ence of the Orkhon River on the ter ri tory of Mon go lia. At Zuunburen sta tion, there is
a sig nif i cant ex ceed ing of max i mum per mis si ble con cen tra tion for cop per and iron. In terms of the other
pa ram e ters, wa ter qual ity in the Selenga and Orkhon rivers cor re sponds to the stan dards [14]. The ba sic
con tri bu tion to wa ter pol lu tion in the Mon go lian part of the Selenga River ba sin is made by in dus trial cen -
ters in Ulaanbaatar, Darkhan, Erdenet, and Sukhbaatar as well as by ag ri cul ture de vel oped in the north ern
re gions of Mon go lia and the sur face run off from the ur ban ized ter ri to ries. The sig nif i cant in flu ence on wa -
ter qual ity is ex erted by gold min ing en ter prises which of ten uti lize out dated min ing tech nol o gies and re -
quire large vol umes of wa ter for their tech no log i cal pro cess. As a re sult, small rivers are heavily pol luted;
for ex am ple, dur ing the gold min ing sea son in the up per reaches of the Tuul River for 80 km (in the Zaamar
gold-bearing zone) the con cen tra tion of sus pended par ti cles reaches 472 g/m3 [4].
The state mon i tor ing of wa ter qual ity in the Rus sian Fed er a tion at the bor der gag ing sta tion in Naushki
re vealed that the Selenga River water is clas si fied as pol luted. In the re cent years, the spe cific com bi na torial
wa ter pol lu tion in dex ex ceeded 3, which means the class of “very pol luted” wa ter [5]. The vi o la tion of
qual ity stan dards in terms of the fre quency of pol lu tion cases and the MPC ex ceed ing mul ti plic ity is typ i cal
of cop per, zinc, to tal iron, and of ten of dif fi cult-to-oxidize or ganic sub stances, vol a tile phe nols, and oil
prod ucts.
Lakes in Mon go lia. Ac cord ing to the data of 1 : 100000 top o graphic maps, about 3700 small lakes with
the wa ter sur face area of <5.0 km2, 113 lakes with the area of >5.0 but <50 km2, 12 lakes with the area of
>50 but <100 km2, and 8 large lakes with the area of > 100 but <500 km2 (Achit, Durgen, Boon Tsagaan,
Ureg, Telmen, Sangiin Dalai, Airag, and Orog) are lo cated on the ter ri tory of Mon go lia. Two lakes have an
area of >500 but <1000 km2: Buir and Khar. The larg est wa ter bod ies in Mon go lia (the wa ter sur face area of
>1000 km2) are the fol low ing four lakes: Uvs, Khar-Us, Khyargas, and Khuvsgul.
About 50 small rivers flow into the largest lake (Khuvsgul), and the Eg River flowing out of it is the
largest left-bank tributary of the Selenga River. It is planned to construct a hydroelectric power plant on
this river.
The Mon go lian lakes are mostly drainless and vul ner a ble to wa ter con tent re duc tion. Cli mate changes in
the re cent de cades have led to the de crease in the num ber of wa ter bod ies: 450 lakes and more than 700 rivers
with pe ren nial run off have dried out in the re cent 20 years. By 2015, the to tal area of the lakes re duced by
7.8% [15]. Dalai Lake (China) fed by the Mon go lian rivers Kerhlen and Khalkh is also im por tant for the
ter ri tory of the Rus sian Fed er a tion. To sta bi lize the lake wa ter level fallen due to the lake area re duc tion,
Chi nese spe cial ists im ple mented the pro ject that transfers the part of run off from the up per reaches of the
Argun (the Hailar River) with the vol ume of about one cu bic ki lo me ter per year. This will no tice ably af fect
the river wa ter con tent in low-water years on the Rus sian ter ri tory.
Gla ciers. The large vol ume of Mon go lian wa ter re sources is con cen trated in the moun tain gla ciers in
the west of the coun try. Ac cord ing to 1 : 100000 top o graphic maps, the to tal area of gla ciers in Mon go lia
was roughly es ti mated at 670 km2, and they are dis trib uted among 42 moun tain sys tems [15]. In the re cent
70 years, the to tal area of gla ciers de creased by 30%. The in ten sity of their melt was rather low till 1990,
then the melt ing rate in creased, and the gla cier area has been re duced rap idly in the re cent de cade [15, 16,
23, 25, 27]. For ex am ple, in 1910, the Brit ish re searcher D. Carruthers was the first to de scribe and take a
pic ture of the Turgen Moun tain gla cier [21]. The joint Mon go lian-American ex pe di tion in March 2010
con ducted mea sure ments of the same gla cier and, based on sat el lite data, con cluded that the gla cier tongue
re treated by 100 m per 100 years and its thick ness de creased by 70 m [26].
Water consumption in Mongolia. Mongolia water resources are mainly used for provision of the
population with potable water, for the housing and utility sector, for the water supply of industry, and for
the irrigation of agricultural lands. Due to a very inhomogeneous spatial distribution of water resources,
water consumption significantly differs across the country. The most water-abundant parts of Mongolia are
RUSSIAN METEOROLOGY AND HYDROLOGY Vol. 44 No. 10 2019
WATER RESOURCES IN MONGOLIA AND THEIR CURRENT STATE 663
the areas situated in the northwest and north of the country as well as in the northeast: these are the basins of
the Arctic and Pacific oceans.
The main con tri bu tion to the wa ter pro vi sion of pop u la tion and all eco nomic sub jects in the coun try is
made by the Selenga River ba sin, where the larg est cit ies of the coun try are lo cated: Ulaanbaatar, Darkhan,
and Erdenet. This ter ri tory is re spon si ble for about 90% of wa ter with drawal for in dus trial needs in Mon go -
lia. At the same time, the pop u la tion of south ern re gions of this coun try has to use the min i mum of wa ter.
The prob lem of the wa ter sup ply of cat tle men is par tic u larly acute: they are lim ited by the sparse net work of
wells on the huge semi-desert and desert ter ri tory of the Gobi Desert and of ten have to con sume 10 l/day of
wa ter per per son. In view of this, the coun try lead ers con sider the vari ant of di ver sion of a part of the
Orkhon River run off (the larg est right-bank trib u tary of the Selenga River) to the south ern re gions of the
coun try. This is as so ci ated both with the wa ter pro vi sion of pop u la tion and ag ri cul ture and with a need in
the de vel op ment of the larg est min eral de pos its in the world lo cated there: Oyu Tolgoi and Tavan Tolgoi.
It should be noted that the total water consumption in the country increases. For example, the total water
consumption was 326.3 ´ 106 m3/year in 2010, whereas it was 400.6 ´ 106 m3/year in 2015. In accordance to
the three common scenarios of economic development (see the table), the water consumption in Mongolia
will be equal to 478.2 ´ 106 m3/year in case of low water consumption, by 26.8% higher in case of
medium consumption, and by two times higher in the case of high consumption [20].
The certain measures are taken to protect Mongolian water resources. Almost all cities and large settle-
ments in the country have treatment facilities most of which are situated in the Selenga River basin.
Currently, due to economic difficulties, more than 40% of treatment facilities do not operate and discharge
wastewater directly to water bodies. The efficiency of operation of treatment facilities in Ulaanbaatar,
Darkhan, and Erdenet reaches 85–90%, but the accidents and unsanctioned wastewater discharges directly
to the channel network also take place [14].
A dis tinc tive fea ture of in dus trial wa ter con sump tion for the an a lyzed transboundary ter ri tory of Mon -
go lia is that large wa ter consumers are min ing en ter prises. The Erdenet city and the min ing and pro cess ing
en ter prise are pro vided with wa ter from the un der flow wa ter of the Selenga River us ing the con duit with a
length of 60 km. To provide Ulaanbaatar with water, the conduit of >40 km is built.
Thus, the Selenga River basin makes the main contribution to the water provision of population and all
economic subjects of the region in the catchment area, and water belongs to the regulating resources,
although this territory in Mongolia is considered as the most water-abundant one. During the low-water
periods small rivers dry out as a result of the large water withdrawal and runoff stops; therefore, the
rationalization of water consumption and the protection of the Selenga River water is highly important for
the sustainable development of the country.
RUSSIAN METEOROLOGY AND HYDROLOGY Vol. 44 No. 10 2019
664 GARMAEV et al.
Projection of water consumption in Mongolia for 2021
Sectors
Water consumption, 106 m3/year
low medium high
Potable water supply
Housing and utility
Industrial water supply
Agriculture
Other
Total
Urban
Rural
Social services
Household services
Light and food industry
Heavy industry
Electric power industry
Mining industry
Production of building
material
Cattle breeding
Irrigated farming
Tourism
Transport, railway
67.2
5.9
6.3
6.0
5.6
2.0
4.8
43.9
61.1
103.1
165.5
2.7
4.1
478.2
72.9
6.0
8.7
6.5
7.6
2.7
6.1
63.5
111.1
108.6
260.8
3.4
4.5
662.4
81.8
6.0
17.2
8.5
13.5
4.7
7.5
97.3
186.1
117.3
360.0
4.0
5.0
908.9
CONCLUSIONS
The con di tions for the for ma tion of wa ter re sources in Mon go lia are char ac ter ized by high diversity. In
com bi na tion with the hardly suf fi cient level of hy dro log i cal ex plo ra tion it cre ates ex tra risks when solv ing
hydroeconomic prob lems.
For ob tain ing the es ti mated char ac ter is tics of wa ter re sources, for the op er a tional fore cast ing of wa ter
re gime, and for the mod el ing of pos si ble con se quences of cli mate change and anthropogenic im pact on the
river run off, it is nec es sary to take into ac count the zones of for ma tion and dis si pa tion of run off. The pres -
ence of these zones causes the vul ner a bil ity of wa ter bod ies to pos si ble cli ma tic threats.
A sig nif i cant part of the Mon go lian rivers is transboundary. The large vol ume of wa ter run off co mes to
the ter ri tory of China and Rus sia. The rivers in the run off dis si pa tion zone are ei ther com pletely lost in the
desert or, for ex am ple, as the Tes, Uldza, and Kherlen rivers, form en closed lakes char ac ter ized by the
“puls ing” re gime. In these spe cific con di tions the prob lem of es ti ma tion of wa ter re sources be comes dif fi -
cult but re mains rather ur gent.
The anal y sis of the cur rent state of Mon go lian wa ter re sources re veals the low-water pe riod ex is tence.
As well as for the whole Baikal re gion, it has al ready con tin ued for more than 20 years and in tro duces es -
sen tial cor rec tions to the quan ti ta tive pa ram e ters of wa ter re sources. This oc curs against a back ground of
in creas ing wa ter con sump tion vol umes across the coun try. The wa ter con sump tion prob lem is es pe cially
acute in the ba sin of the main wa ter way, the Selenga River. This river plays a cru cial role not only for the
econ omy and pop u la tion of Mon go lia but also for the pro vi sion of the in flow of wa ter re sources and of the
wa ter level re gime of Lake Baikal be ing a part of the UNESCO World Her i tage. The above fac tors as well
as the plans of the Mon go lian lead ers to con trol the wa ter run off of transboundary rivers and to di verse their
part out of the Lake Baikal ba sin is a mat ter of se ri ous con cern and re quires an im me di ate so lu tion to this
prob lem in or der to achieve eco log i cally safe and eco nom i cally ef fec tive joint wa ter con sump tion.
FUNDING
The re search was sup ported by the Pro gram of Fun da men tal Re search IX.137.2 of the Rus sian Foun da -
tion for Ba sic Re search (grant 17-29-05108) and Rus sian Geo graphic So ci ety (grant “The Baikal Ex pe di -
tion—The Sec ond Stage”).
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