A part of Ulaanbaatar (from a window of my place)By Erdenetuya Urtnast
After 1990’s rural-urban migration abruptly increased because of the variety of factors: social, economical, political, cultural and so on. I am going to talk about it in more detail. That is why now I’ll try to describe present state of the urbanization process in Mongolia and its’ main peculiarities.
At first, I would like to mention that intensive process of urbanization and rural-urban migration are not only socio-economical phenomenon in Mongolia but also throughout of the World rural people have been moving to larger cities and the era can be said as urbanizing century.
In 1900 there were only 13 cities each had in excess of 1 million people, but in 2000 the number reached to 375. Expectations are for 564 million cities in 2015. “The amount of urban growth differs from continent to continent and from region to region, but nearly all countries have two things in common: The proportion of their people living in cities is rising, and the cities themselves are large and growing. In consequence, most of the world’s people will soon be city dwellers. Urban population is increasing much more rapidly in developing countries than in the more developed economies” [1] .
Briefly, Ulaanbaatar can be described as a medium-sized and typical primate city of a developing country surrounded by shantytowns. A resident of a ger-settlement of Ulaanbaatar would get upset if anyone explained what is the shantytown or a ghetto.
Interestingly, there is no contrasting social hierarchy among settlement areas of Ulaanbaatar. That is why in ger-settlement areas comfortable detached houses of wealthy families are found. It might be a distinction of the capital city.
By the way what does the primate city mean? Primate city patterns are very popular for developing countries of Asia and Africa. By size, most of primate cities are several times larger than second cities of the certain country. Darkhan, the second city of Mongolia has 74 thousand populations. It means Ulaanbaatar is 14 times bigger than Darkhan by its size of population. “For a characteristic of a primate city hierarchy is one very large city, few or no intermediate-sized cities, and many subordinate smaller settlements. The capital cities of many developing countries display that the overwhelming primacy” [2] . In Mongolia’s case, the capital city is not very large one, it contains over 46 per cent of the total population.
“There are some common features of developing world cities. All, for example have endured massive in-migrations from rural areas, and most have had even faster rates of natural increase than of immigration. As a result, most are ringed by vast squatter settlements high in density and low in public facilities and services. All apparently have populations greater than their formal functions and employment bases can support. In all, large numbers support themselves in the informal sector. They have modern centers of commerce”.
The capital city of Mongolia as well shares common features of other cities of developing world: en masse rural-urban migration, ringed by ger-settlements high in density and low in social services and unsanitary environmental conditions and etc. Large numbers support themselves in the informal sector – black market traders, taxi drivers, cooks of small cafes, builders and etc.
Another peculiarity of primate cities of developing world is most of them are ringed by shantytowns. “Between one-third and two-thirds of the population of most developing world cities is crowded in shantytowns and squatter settlements built by the inhabitants. They usually have little or no access to publicly provided services such as water supply, sewerage and drainage, paved roads, and garbage removal… More usually, however, overcrowding transforms these settlements into vast zones of disease and squalor subject to constant danger from landslides, fire, and flooding. The informality and illegality of the squatter housing solution means that those who improvise and build their own shelters lack registration and recognized ownership of their domiciles or the land on which they stand” [3] .
About 60-70 percent of Ulaanbaatar population resides in ger-settlements which are can be described as typical shantytown – they have little access to publicly provided services. Many residents of ger-settlements “erect their dwellings on steep mountain slopes where the danger of landslides is high. Those families settling down in the flood plains of rivers and streams risk being washed away in the case of heavy rains which can result in destructive floods…
The urban administration faces great problems in providing sufficient infrastructural services, especially enough clean water and electricity. The disposal of waste and excrement is unsolved. The bad hygienic conditions bear a high risk for the health of the inhabitants. As building ground becoming rare near the town centre, the migrants are even settling close to the major cemetery of Ulaanbaatar” [4]...
[1]- Jerome.D, Fellman, Arthur Getis and Judith Getis, Human Geography: Landscapes of Human Activities, (McGraw Hill, 2003), pp.396
[2]- ibid., pp.410
[3]- ibid., pp.436
[4]- Janzen,J. and Bazargur,D, “The Transformation Process in Mobile Livestock Keeping and Changing Patterns of Mobility in Mongolia. –With Special Attention to Western Mongolia and Ulaanbaatar,” in Ishikawa, Y and Montanari,A ed., The New Geography of Human Mobility – Inequality Trends? IGU, vol.4, , (Home of Geography, Societa Geografica Italiana. Roma, 2003), pp.207
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