Ulaanbaatar, August 21, 2023 /MONTSAME/.  At the initiative of the President of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, the operation to discover sunken vehicles in Lake Khuvsgul, define their location, and remove them is taking place in Khuvsgul Lake since this June to protect the ecological system of Khuvsgul Lake by cleaning up hazardous waste at the bottom of the lake, and reducing its pollution.

The President of Mongolia and Commander-in-Chief of the Mongolian Armed Forces thanked and wished success to the staff participating in the operation when Mr. Khurelsukh worked in Khankh soum of Khuvsgul aimag.

A 17.8-ton track of the “Zil-130” model, which sank in 1981 at a depth of 74 meters was pulled out. Earlier a trailer of the track had been removed at a depth of 72 meters, 700 meters from the shore of the lake.

The operation, led by the First Deputy Chief of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Brigadier General J.Chultemsuren, is being held with the participation of the officers of NEMA, the 186th and 234th units of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the staff of academics, teachers, and military consulting engineers of the Mongolian University of Science and Technology and the rescuers of NEMA.  

Equipment and machines for the operation have been invented by Mongolian scholars and engineers and the operation is being carried out in accordance with the plan and technology based on calculation and studies by researchers, military advisors, and engineers.

According to a survey made by some government organizations, there are more than 50 fuel trucks submerged in the deep water of the Khuvsgul Lake in Khuvsgul aimag of Mongolia since the 1950s, and 17 of them were retrieved at that time.  It had been estimated that the submerged vehicles were posing a danger of polluting 0.26 percent of the Khuvsgul Lake water if their fuel tanks leak. 

This July 11-ton crawler tractor of the “T-100” model, which sank in 1968 at a depth of 33.4 meters, about 400 meters from the shore of Lake Khuvsgul was pulled out. 309-ton Sukhbaatar Ship that had sunk at a depth of 16 meters in 1985 was pulled out in 2021.

The vehicles which have been retrieved so far since this June include a fuel track of the “Zil-130” model, with its trailer which submerged in 1995 at a depth of 128 meters, about 2.5 kilometers from the Bay of Maraan of Lake Khuvsgul; and a 6-ton fuel track of at a depth of 54 meters, about 1.4 kilometers from the shore of Lake Khuvsgul.

A total of 34.7 tonnes of fuel, oil, and lubricants were removed from the vehicles, a significant contribution to the reduction of pollution of Lake Khuvsgul and its environment.