GS1247 VPA 203 Sierra Leone Safe Water

Audit Analysis

This Gold Standard safe-water project in Sierra Leone displaces thermal energy used for boiling water and has VVB-confirmed additionality with no reversal events, but is burdened by an extraordinary volume of material findings, open corrective actions, significant borehole operational failures (4,193 non-functional days), a declining usage rate, and multiple data contradictions across documents. The absence of a buffer pool, a 0% leakage deduction with inconsistent justification, and a project-specific baseline further weaken the integrity profile. Overall, the project is verified but operationally fragile and data-inconsistent.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠4,193 borehole non-functional days across VPAs during the monitoring period due to low water discharge and broken pump heads, indicating significant operational fragility
• ⚠Usage rate declined from 93.98% to 81.73% between monitoring periods, undermining the assumed 90–95% utilisation
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% yet the justification is contradictory: the verification report (2024-05-29) calls it 'quantified' while the monitoring report (2024-05-18) calls it 'deemed negligible', and the PDD originally planned a 5% deduction
• ⚠fNRB value differs by 50% between documents: 0.95 (national default, monitoring report) versus 0.63 (local field, validation report), which would materially alter credit quantities

Credit Vintages