Ulaan Lake, Airag Lake, Khyargas Lake, Angir-Nuden Mondoohei Lake – Mongolia

Under the co-ordination of the NGO United Movement of Mongolian Rivers and Lakes (UMMRL) the four lakes became associated members to the network Living Lakes in March 2010.

Portraits of the lakes

Lake Angir-Nuden Mondoohei – Uvs Province / Mongolia

The beautiful Lake Mondoohei is the only freshwater lake located in the Khan Khukhii Mountain range 2.5 km from the Tsagaankhairkhan soum center in the Uvs Province. In spring and autumn, it becomes a favourite place for swans, brown geese and many other migratory birds. The local people have regarded this lake as the mirror of Mount Tsagaankhairkhan and have venerated it for many years. The maximum depth measures 3 meters, the lake is situated at 1,636 - 1,642 meters above sea level.

Tsagaankhairkhan soum is part of the Khan Khuhii special protected area and lake Uvs basin. The lake is located 1,150 km from Ulaanbaatar and 270 km from Ulaangom. There are around 20 rivers whose headwater begins in the Khankhuhii Mountain range, which include rivers such as Baruunturuun, Zuunturuun, Khangiltsag. Most, Chigj, Har Us, Tsagaan Us, Har Tsagaan Us, Mondoohei, Ovt gurams, Hustai, nearly all of them flow to the north. There are around 500 rivers and 20 lakes in this basin. 

In recent years, destructive actions of the local people, companies and some other organizations in this basin area have increased significantly and caused the rivers Khangiltsag and Mondoohei to dry up and stop running into Lake Uvs.

Partner Organization Lake Angir-Nuden

Angir-Nuden Mondoohei Movement

Channel centre r room 407, 13th sub district

Bayanzurkh District, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Phone: +976 – 55 15 06 63, +976 – 99 22 80 43

E-mail: anmondoohei@yahoo.com

Lake Ulaan (Red) – South Gobi Province / Mongolia

Lake Ulaan, covering a surface of 175 sq. km, is situated in South Mongolia, once was a large lake with 25 km in length and 15 km in width at maximum lake level. But the lake dried-up since the 1990s, and is only a vestige of the former lake. This phenomenon seems to be related to global warming, especially reflecting increasing desertification in East Asia.

For the first time since more than eleven years of dryness, the Onggi River has reached the Ulaan Lake in summer 2011. Different natural parameters but also the approaches of the Onggi River Movement recorded to this incidence: Since 2010, rain falls in the Khangai Mountains, reforestation on 18 hectares in the lake region and at the shorelines of the Onggi River as well as the decrease of activities in gold mines. In 2008, great amounts of snow in the Khangai Mountains, a mountain range in central Mongolia, created glaciation, their melting water fed the rivers in the region.

Partner Organization Lake Ulaan (Red)

Onggi River Movement

Bolor-Erdene Otgonbaigal (Foreign Relation Officer)

#411 of Mongolian Labor Union building, 1st khoroo,

Chingeltei District

Ulaanbaatoar, Mongolia

Phone: +976 11 327781, +976 99823551, +976 88952895

E-mail: onggi_river@yahoo.com;  onggi.rivermovement@gmail.com

Lake Khyargas – Uvs Province / Mongolia

Khyargas Lake is a salt lake, situated in the Western Mongolia in the Uvs Province. It is situated at 1,035 m above sea level and covers a surface of 1,481 sq. km. Its maximum depth measures 80 m, the average depth is 47 m. The primary inflow is the Zavkanhan River via Airag Lake.

The Lake Khyargas National Park was established in 2000 and covers an area of 3,328 sq. km. Also Lake Airag, a freshwater lake, is partially included in this protected area. Threatened birds, like Relict Gull (Ichthyaetus relictus) live in the National Park.

The region around Lake Khyargas is one of the climatic most extreme regions world-wide. The difference in temperature between the deepest temperature in winter and the highest temperature in summer is extreme in this geographical depression.

Lake Airag - Uvs Province / Mongolia

Lake Airag  is a fresh water lake, covering a surface of 143 sq. km and is situated at an altitude of 1,030 m above sea level. Its maximum depth measures 10 meters and its average depth is 5.7 meters. From mid-November until April, Lake Airag is frozen. The main land uses are livestock grazing and seasonal small scale commercial fishing. Lake Airag is a Ramsar site and partially protected by the Khyargas Lake National Park.

More than 20,000 waterfowl live in the area, also rare species such as Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus crispus), White-headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala), Swan Goose (Anser cygnoides) and Palla´s Fish Eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus). Many fish species, some of them are nationally threatened, live in the lake, like Mongolian Grayling (Thymallus brevirostris). In the semi-arid steppe around the lake live rare mammal species like Goitered Gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa), Mongolian Gazelle (Procapra gutturosa) and Thick-tailed Pygmy Jerboa (Salpingotus crassicauda).

Projects on site

• Reforestation of Sea-buckthorn Trees on the Banks of Onggi River in Mongolia
• Ecological Cultivation in Mongolia

Co-ordination

United Movement of Mongolian Rivers and Lakes (UMMRL)

#411 of Mongolian Labor Union building, 1st khoroo,

Chingeltei District

Ulaanbaatoar, Mongolia

Phone: +976 11 327781, +976 99906309

E-mail: rivermovements@gmail.com