Letter to DG Environment: Flaws in Environmental Impact Assessment of the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia

The Environmental and Social Impact Asessment (ESIA) for the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia has been delayed for years and comes at a time when the commercial operations are soon to begin. By including only the construction phase of the mine, the impacts of its actual operations are neglected with potentially devastating impacts on water reserves in the Gobi desert - especially because the interrelation of the deep (fossil water) and shallow aquifers that are used by herders has not been thoroughly assessed and is based only on modelling and assumptions with no monitoring data publicly available.