GS12023 GS12022-RVPA-02-Safe drinking water for households, institutions and communities

Audit Analysis

This Gold Standard safe-drinking-water project in Nepal has a VVB-confirmed additionality assessment and a quantified 5% leakage deduction, but is undermined by severe contradictions in fundamental parameters—most critically a 100× discrepancy in the assumed usage rate (100% vs 1%) and a 100× discrepancy in the fNRB value (91.44 vs 0.9144)—that create material over-crediting risk. The grid emission factor of zero and the conflicting energy-source descriptions (grid vs renewable) further weaken the baseline. Numerous unresolved material findings and corrective actions from the verification process indicate documentation quality issues.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Usage rate contradiction: the monitoring report and verification report state 100% usage, while an appendix states 1%—a 100× difference that could inflate claimed ERR by two orders of magnitude if the lower figure is correct.
• ⚠fNRB value contradiction: the verification report records 91.44 while the monitoring report records 0.9144, a 100× discrepancy that directly affects the emissions calculation.
• ⚠Grid emission factor is recorded as 0 (year 2021), which would yield zero displacement emissions from grid electricity; combined with the energy-source contradiction (grid vs renewable), the baseline emissions calculation is unreliable.
• ⚠Energy source is described as 'grid' in the verification report but 'renewable' in the monitoring report, creating ambiguity about the actual power source for water pumping.

Credit Vintages