Au laid milieu de cette guerre étale,

de ces mers où ciel, boue, puanteur pâle sont enchevêtrés,

dans ce vacarme aussi, levé aux marges du silence,

la fracture d’une silhouette

Son jeu envers et contre

Une vie réduite à son ombre

qu’on n’aura pourtant pas éteinte

Carole Zalberg

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Cliquez sur le diaporama pour le voir en plein écran.

The UB Borderline reportage investigates the periurban areas of the Mongolian capital city laying the gaze where the relation between human and environment becomes manifest. The borderline is meant both as geographical and social, as they usually match. These areas are the result of recent urban immigration stirred by climate change, desertification and new social models.

Recent urban immigration in the capital city of Mongolia brought to the formation of periurban areas with high level of unemployed and high poverty income levels. In this contest, kids are often forced to work and many do not attend school.

The periurban areas, called “Gers District”, have developed without a planned strategy or infrastructural services as roads, water, electricity, sewers. At the beginning nomads settled with their Yurts, and this has been their luck compared with other cities slums, but now many are building houses.

In December the outside temperature it is normally around -30 Celsius. Coal or wood, which is very expensive, are the only heating sources for all the periurban areas of UB. Air pollution caused by the smoke of burned coal of the four power plants and of the stoves of Gers often causes pulmonary diseases.

Poverty brought around 300 people, of which almost 50 are children from 5 to 18, to live collecting and differentiating waste in the garbage dump. 100 of them have their homes build in the dump.

4 people can live in a 2,50 x 3 meters home made of wood, plastic and bed nets.

Malnutrition, lack of hygiene and pollution are the main causes of TB. Therefore TB disease is closely connected with social welfare.

Matteo Gozzi