[Ulaanbaatar city, July 30, 2024] – The “Public Awareness and Behavior Change” sub-activity of the Water Sector Sustainability Activity under the MCC-Mongolia Water Compact aims to inculcate the practice of timely payment of water bills by improving public awareness and understanding of the true cost of water services associated with water extraction and distribution. According to the design of this sub-activity, which incorporated stakeholder comments and feedback, two sets of post-impact measures were determined to be implemented: “Activities aimed at improving water supply and sewerage services for consumers” and “Communications and Media campaigns to improve public understanding and awareness of the true value of water and the real cost of services”.

As part of the first set of activities, e-innovation and governance will be implemented to enable all water supply and sewerage service providers in Ulaanbaatar to use a unified system. In other words, more than 250,000 households and businesses in Ulaanbaatar city will be connected to the integrated information system, a billing system, customer portal services, smartphone applications, and an integrated call center ticketing system. As a result of the successful tendering process, the Astvision was selected to provide consulting for implementation of the first set of activities on e-innovation and governance aimed at improving water supply and sewerage services for consumers, and the consulting services have commenced.

This e-innovation and governance framework is not limited to IT work, but also includes stakeholder engagement in order to enter data from residential customers of water supply and sewerage services into the system and develop a digital platform based on it. All parties involved in the design stage, such as the Ministry of Urban Development, Construction and Housing, Municipality of Ulaanbaatar, Governor Office of Ulaanbaatar City, WSRC, Water Authority, USUG, OSNAAUG, 69 Private Kontors, and Professional Associations will continue to collaborate closely during the implementation phase.