QUESTIONS & ANSWERSSVEN ERIK HARGESKOG Memorandum ToRFP Tenderers FromGGGI Date2015-08-03 Subject RFP-LPH-2015-333 - Consulting Services related to the National Water Database of Mongolia Questions & Answers The questions received in time will be answered.The questions and answers will be published on www.gggi.org. Date for latest submission of answers or publication on www.gggi.org: 4 August 2015, 17:00 KST Questions received in time, latest 30 July 2015, 17:00 KST, followed by answers 1.Does the current GoM (MEGDT) have a pre-defined format for reporting the water sources and water usages from these sources in Mongolia? Answer: For certain specifications of the 64 parameters in the 9 datasets in the database, GoM has pre-definedformatsforreporting.Ingeneral,existingformsrequireupdatingandnewformsneedtobe developed, as suggested in Component 3 in the ToR. 2.Is there an existing database holding all the past records? Answer: The GoM set up an initial national water database at www.eic.mn, but it has a limited amount of data entered and lacks basic user tools. 3.Final web-portal should be bi-lingual (English-Mongolian)? Answer:Yes.TheusertoolsandinterfaceofthewebportalshouldbeinbothMongolianandEnglish languages. 4.Is there a warranty period from the consultant after the end of the project? If so, how long is the preferred warranty time frame? Answer: Subject to negotiation.Preferred warranty period of at least one year from the end of contract in the form of support for unanticipated technical issues that relate back to the Components of the Consultancy in the ToR. 5.In the Project Background and Objectives section the RFP states that In order to manage water resources, the Government of Mongolia (GOM) has collected information on water resources since the mid nineteenth century, accumulating a vast amount of information. Is the Consultancy expected to handover the National Water Database with the existing data already imported in it?If yes, can you please provide us with the existing data so we had an understanding on the scope of the data that need to be imported? QUESTIONS & ANSWERSSVEN ERIK HARGESKOG Answer: The Consultancy is expected to deliver the fully functional database with web portal with data under each dataset entered as a part of testing the data entry forms and database functions.Mongolia has 29 River basin administrations, 21 aimags, 361 soums, and two main surface water monitoring networks, consisting of as many as 157 water monitoring and 192 water quality monitoring stations (in some cases, consisting of only flow readings). In total, the National Water Database consists of 9 datasets that include 64 parameters, each with its own set of corresponding specifications. Some specifications of a parameter are relatively fixed (e.g. surface water object location coordinates), others require a stream of entries over time (e.g. water level measurement per station per month). Much of the data is available in digital form, but housed across different institutions and in different formats. As much data will be provided as possible. GGGI and the GoM have drafted a current assessment of the availability, completeness and issues with the National Water Database (the public release of which is expected by September 2015) that will help inform this Component of the Consultancy. The winning bidder will be provided with the full report. 6.Can you please specify where the National Water Database is going to be hosted? Answer: The Environmental Information Center of the National Agency of Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, will host the NWD, as it does presently. 7.What is the approximate budget you are considering for this project? Answer: The budget will not be disclosed for this Request for Proposal. 8.In section "Assessment and development of data collection and quality assurance process" in the scope of work section (p.7) it is mentioned that "data collection forms will be tested in selected, data rich and data poor administrative units and the river basins". Is it part of the task of the consultants to test these forms, or will this be done by MEGDT/ 3GI? If this forms part of the assignment, in how many administrative units shall the data be collected? Answer: Revising and testing the forms are the tasks of the consultants. The forms should be tested with at least two administrative units and two river basins. Please note that administrative units do not necessarily overlap with river basins. After the Consultant completes the revision and testing, the GoM plans to roll out forms nationwide. 9.Based on the scope of work, we understand that it is not part of the assignment to complete the database with all suggested data (i.e. complete data collection). Could you please confirm if our understanding is correct? Answer: Yes. The database should be functional and well integrated with a minimum amount of current data entered into each parameter of the nine datasets in order to properly test and launch the database. However, the full set of available historical data does not necessarily need to be completed in the database.