Information on the availability of public, hydrological data
The General Directorate of Water Management (henceforth General Directorate) as an institute responsible for public, water related tasks, in accordance with the 26 § of Act CXII of 2011 on the right to information, self-determination and freedom of information (henceforth Information Act) has to permit the data in its management to be available to anyone subject to the exceptions and conditions stated in the Information Act.
Data of public interest
Information or knowledge registered by any means or in any form that is handled by the Data Administrator and related to its activities or arisen while fulfilling its public tasks, which does not fallen under the termination of personal data.
Regardless of the form how it is handled; individually or in a collected way, especially data related to the scope, competency, organizational structure, professional activity including an assessment of their effectiveness, the type of data possessed and the legislation regulating their operation and also data related to management and undersigned contracts.
Especially data generated during the course of the performance of basic water-related tasks, which the Data Administrator has in digital or paper based form and that are available in the Water Information System (henceforth “WIS” / “VIZIR”) or in another digital or paper form (hereinafter referred to as "technical data"); or data concerning the activity or operation of the Data Administrator (hereinafter referred to as "general data") and which is considered to be data of public interest or public data in accordance with the provisions of the Information Act.
The ways of data request
The public data can be requested in person verbally or in writing (both on paper and electronically). Data requested in writing can be made by the person who requests the data by writing or by filling the Data Request Form, which can be downloaded from the website of the General Water Directorate or obtained from the Directorate.
In the case of data requested verbally, the Administration Officer of the General Water Directorate fills the form, which shall be undersigned by the person who requested the data and appears in person.
Please note that claims on the phone cannot be accepted by the General Directorate.
Please, send your data request to one of the following address:
General Directorate of Water Management
HUNGARY - 1012 BUDAPEST, MÁRVÁNY UTCA 1/d
Postal address: Hungary - 1253 Budapest, Pf.56.
Completing and clarifying data requests
The General Water Directorate will fulfil the request for public interest data within the shortest possible time after receiving the request, but not later than 15 days, if the following are provided:
- the name and address of the Data Claimant (address/address/electronic address),
- precise determination of the data requested,
- a statement of the means of access (by personal review, by requesting copies or by electronic way),
- if necessary, a statement by the Data Claimant on the payment of any charges.
If the data request is high volume or concerns a large amount of data, or if the fulfilment of the data request would require a disproportionate use of human resources necessary for the performance of the basic activities of the General Directorate, the 15-day time limit fixed above may be extended by 15 days once.
If the data request is unclear and/or not completed, the General Directorate would ask the Data Claimant to provide clarification in writing, by a set deadline. The time passed before the receipt of the clarification shall not count for the time limit of providing the data. If the Data Claimant does not provide the clarification within 30 days of receiving the request for clarification, the request will be rejected by the General Directorate.
Fees of fulfilment the data request
The General Directorate can determine the costs of the fulfilment of a data request if the conditions stated in the Information Act and in Government Decree 301/2016 (IX. 30.) on the amount of the refund of costs for the fulfilment of a request for data of public interest are met. The General Directorate shall inform the data requester of the amount of the fee within 15 days of the received data request by the General Directorate.
The Data Claimant shall declare within 30 days of receiving the information whether or not he/she still requires his/her data request.
The data request will be fulfilled within 15 days of the receiving the written acceptance by the General Directorate, following payment completed by the Data Claimant of the amount of the agreed fee.
Refusal or restriction of the data request
Refusing the fulfilment of a data request could be made if the availability of data of public interest is excluded, in particular:
- personal data that does not count as data of public interest,
- classified data,
- data which cannot be released for reasons of protection of certain interests defined by law,
- business secrets (secured information),
- data which are not to share on the basis of an EU legal act in order to protect an important EU financial or economic policy interest,
- data to support a decision,
- a request for data for an overall check of the financial management of the General Directorate, at the level of the accounts or by item, in case that there has been no change in the data in the same category
- the expiry of a period of time specified in the administration system rules (preservation),
- in the case of a request for the same range of data submitted by the Data Claimant within one year,
- the request relates to data which are not handled by the General Directorate.
Data created or recorded by the General Directorate as Data Administrator in the course of a procedure leading to a decision falling within its responsibility and used as a basis for a decision shall not be made public for a period of ten years from the date on which it was created.
The General Directorate shall not be obliged to fulfil a request for data if the applicant does not provide his or her name, or in the case of an applicant who is not a natural person, its designation and the contact details at which it can be provided with any information and notification relating to the request for data.
Within 15 days of receiving the data request, the General Directorate shall inform the Data Claimant about the refusal to fulfil the data request and the reasons for such refusal by letter or, if the request was sent electronically or if the electronic mailing address is indicated in the request, the General Directorate sends information about the legal remedies available to the Data Claimant.
Technical data supplied in the frame of the service
If one of the following conditions is fulfilled, the General Directorate will carry out the data request in the framework of a service, in the case of it is not a public interest data request:
- for fulling the requested data, the necessary processing power is not available to the General Directorate, but they can be produced,
- the data must be produced in accordance with the specific needs of the Data Claimant,
- the production of statistical characteristics (especially related to averages of different time periods, minima, maxima) from data available in a processed state according to professional standards is also necessary to fulfil the data request,
- the collection and analysis of the requested data requires expert work, in particular the involvement of the protection area of the aquifer, the evaluation of data related to bridges.
The service fee is determined on the basis of the current schedule of fees for chartered engineers of the Hungarian Chamber of Engineers.