GS10959 VPA03 Safe Water Project in Rwanda III

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard safe-water energy-efficiency project in Rwanda with a named VVB and no reversal events, but undermined by a 100% usage-rate assumption, a project-specific baseline, multiple corrective actions on monitoring quality, and an explicitly flagged double-claiming risk. The exact match between claimed and verified ERR (350,018 tCO2e) and the absence of a stated additionality test type limit confidence in the robustness of the credit claim.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Usage rate of 100% assumed in the PDD and confirmed in the monitoring report, with CAR#02 noting the MR did not include the actual monitored Qp,y value, only the default cap — the 100% figure may not reflect real household behaviour.
• ⚠FAR#01 explicitly requires the project developer to clarify how double claiming is avoided where alternative water-purification access exists under another project; this corrective action remains open.
• ⚠Four corrective actions (CAR#01–CAR#04) relate to monitoring-table completeness, units, and frequency compliance, indicating the MRV record for the 2023–2024 period was not fully conformant at the time of verification.
• ⚠Leakage justification is inconsistent across documents: the verification report (Apr 2024) states 'deemed negligible' while the later monitoring report (Dec 2024) states 'quantified', yet the deduction remains 0% in both.

Credit Vintages