GS1247 VPA 229 The Gambia Safe Water

Audit Analysis

The Gambia Safe Water project (GS1247 VPA 229) is a Gold Standard safe water project with VVB-confirmed additionality and no reported reversal events, but it is undermined by extensive material findings (21 CARs, multiple borehole water-quality failures), a 0% leakage deduction whose justification shifted between reports, and numerous contradictions across documents. The project delivered its claimed emissions reductions for the 2023–2024 monitoring period, but the absence of a buffer pool, the project-specific baseline, and the volume of unresolved corrective actions (including five open FARs) limit confidence in long-term integrity.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠19 boreholes failed water quality testing in Q1 2021 and 11 in Q2 2021 due to coliforms; 18 boreholes failed initial testing and required chlorination treatment — operational reliability of the water infrastructure is in question
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% in the 2024 verification report, but the PDD (2023-06-29) specified a 5% deduction; the justification also shifted from 'deemed negligible' (2023) to 'quantified' (2024) without clear reconciliation
• ⚠Five Forward Action Requests (FARs) remain open, including evaluation of SDG indicators at VPA level and submission of an fNRB report, indicating unresolved compliance gaps
• ⚠Total ERR figures differ substantially between the 2023 verification report (claimed 60,000 / verified 65,901) and the 2024 report (claimed 36,083 / verified 36,083), and the basis for the difference is not clearly explained in the extracted record

Credit Vintages