GS 10959 VPA01 Safe Water Project in Rwanda I

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard energy-efficiency project displacing thermal energy for water purification in Rwanda, with VVB-confirmed additionality and no reported reversals, but burdened by an extensive list of material findings, five outstanding corrective actions, a project-specific baseline, and a double-claiming concern flagged by the VVB. The 100% usage rate with no discount and CORSIA eligibility introduce moderate over-crediting and dual-channel risk.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Five corrective actions remain outstanding, including confirmation of legal carbon-rights ownership and evidence of community authorization
• ⚠VVB flagged a double-claiming risk: the project must ensure the next usage survey covers alternative water purification access to avoid double claiming (FAR from MP1)
• ⚠No buffer pool percentage is stated in any available document, leaving permanence risk unquantified
• ⚠The monitoring report (Dec 2025) describes leakage as 'quantified' while the verification report (Jul 2025) states it is 'deemed negligible' — an unresolved inconsistency
• ⚠An obsolete fNRB default value was used initially and had to be corrected (CAR#02), raising questions about the robustness of the original calculation

Credit Vintages