Cleaner, Safer Water in Cambodia

Audit Analysis

This is a certified Gold Standard water project with VVB-confirmed additionality, a recent baseline reassessment, and strong safeguards on paper. However, the record shows several material inconsistencies across documents, missing leakage quantification, and a large gap between claimed and verified emissions reductions, which weakens confidence in the crediting claims.

Project Description

In Cambodia, untreated water and poor sanitation cause an estimated 10 million cases of diarrhea and 10,000 deaths each year, mostly in children living in rural areas. To date, social enterprise Hydrologic has reached nearly two million Cambodians with its ceramic water purifiers. With a filter in their homes, families can drink safely. By no longer needing to boil water, indoor air pollution from wood burning is reduced, household fuel costs are slashed, time is saved for women and children, and Cambodia’s vulnerable forests are protected. The project creates rural employment opportunities in filter manufacturing and distribution.   Women make up 47% of Hydrologic’s staff , including 60% of top-level managers and 60% of the rural sales force. Hydrologic also works with a microfinance institution to sell filters on credit, making them affordable for more Cambodians. The sale of Gold Standard carbon credits enables Hydrologic to continue researching and developing purifier technology and to train local producers and distributors, thus scaling up its positive impact. Awards National Energy Globe Award (2013) Ashden Award (2012) GIZ IMPACT Business Award (2011) Project Impacts and Benefits 90,000   tonnes of CO2e saved per year (equivalent to taking 36,000 cars off the road) 600,000+   Filters distributed to date providing clean water to nearly two million Cambodians 74%   of those who previously boiled water report less exposure to smoke For every   1000 carbon credits   purchased: $30,000   savings by households on fuel purchase and collection* 5 hectares   of Cambodia’s forest protected* 34   fewer cases of acute lower respiratory illness* *Figures are based on data from Lord, R. (2014) Social Return on Investment of Nexus Carbon for Development Projects. This study calculated the co-benefits for Hydrologic using 2016–2017 data. More information on this project can be found in

Red Flags

• ⚠ The claimed and verified emission reductions differ materially, and the record contains multiple contradictory figures across reports.
• ⚠ Leakage is described as quantified or negligible, but the actual deduction percentage is not stated in the extracted record.
• ⚠ Several corrective actions and completeness issues were raised in the verification process, including missing QA/QC details and incomplete appendix updates.

Credit Vintages

Cosa migliorerebbe questo punteggio

• Publish a clean reconciliation table for all contradictory figures, especially usage rate, FNRB, emissions totals, and crediting-period dates, with a clear explanation of which document governs each value.
• State the actual leakage deduction percentage and provide a complete, updated monitoring package with resolved corrective actions and fully filled QA/QC fields.

Questi suggerimenti indicano quali prove pubbliche aggiuntive potrebbero migliorare il livello di confidenza di questa valutazione. Non garantiscono un punteggio futuro più alto.