GS1247 VPA 210 Sierra Leone Safe Water

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard safe-water (borehole) project in Sierra Leone with VVB-confirmed additionality and no reversal events, but undermined by the absence of a buffer pool, a 0% leakage deduction that contradicts the PDD's 5% figure, a declining usage rate, retired boreholes, and extensive corrective actions and Gold Standard grievance-review caps that signal operational and crediting-integrity concerns. The verified ERR for the current monitoring period (18,707 tCO2e) is far below the ex-ante annual estimate of 100,000 tCO2e cited in the material findings, indicating significant under-delivery relative to the original design assumptions.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠No buffer pool is recorded in any available document, leaving no financial backstop against potential reversal of avoided emissions.
• ⚠Leakage deduction was reduced from 5% in the PDD (2023) to 0% 'deemed negligible' in the 2026 verification report without a quantified re-analysis.
• ⚠Gold Standard applied grievance-review caps (300 users per borehole, 0.0004 T/L fuel parameter) that reduced verified emissions reductions, indicating the project was initially over-crediting.
• ⚠Usage rate fell from 93.98% to 81.73% between monitoring periods, and two boreholes were retired, eroding the project's operational base.
• ⚠The material findings note a 'lack of exit strategy poses risks to beneficiaries,' a governance gap that threatens long-term project integrity.

Credit Vintages