GS1247 VPA 144 Manicaland Safe Water

Audit Analysis

The Manicaland Safe Water project (GS1247 VPA 144) is a Gold Standard safe-water borehole project verified by Carbon Check (India) with a VVB-confirmed combined additionality test and no reported reversal events. However, the project is undermined by eleven cross-document contradictions (including leakage deduction of 0% vs 5%, fNRB of 0.97 vs 0.85, and two different crediting periods), an ongoing investigation into two staff members, a delayed revalidation, and 49.1 non-functional borehole days during the monitoring period. The methodology (TPDDTEC, designed for thermal-energy displacement) is applied to safe-water infrastructure, raising baseline-validity questions, and the absence of a buffer pool leaves permanence protection thin.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Eleven contradictions across documents, including leakage deduction (0% in verification report vs 5% in PDD), fNRB (0.97 vs 0.85), and two non-overlapping crediting periods (2018–2023 vs 2025–2030), indicating significant data-reliability issues.
• ⚠Ongoing investigation into two staff members within the Zimbabwean partner organisation, reported in the verification report material findings.
• ⚠49.1 non-functional days recorded across all boreholes during the 2024 monitoring period, undermining the permanence and reliability of the water-supply claim.
• ⚠Revalidation to transition to the ERS DWS methodology is incomplete and delayed due to the Government of Zimbabwe's Carbon Framework, with a deviation extending the timeline to 31 December 2024.

Credit Vintages