ULAN BATOR, July 24 (Xinhua) — More than 10 percent of Mongolia’s territory is suffering from a severe drought, said the country’s weather monitoring agency on Tuesday.
"Currently, about 90 percent of the total area of the country is in good summer condition," Danzan Sumiya, meteorologist from the National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring, said at a press conference.
But over 10 percent of the territory, including large parts of Bayankhongor province in the south-west, and some soums of provinces in the east, are suffering from drought, she said.
It has been raining heavily across large parts of Mongolia since the beginning of this month, causing flooding in some areas.
Until the recent pouring rain, nearly half of the country’s territory had experienced one of the worst droughts in its history, especially the provinces covered by the gobi desert.
Mongolia has a large nomad population of which 40 percent are dependent on rain-fed agriculture and animal husbandry for their livelihoods.