GS1247 VPA 287 - Burkina Faso Safe Water

Audit Analysis

The Burkina Faso Safe Water project is operational with VVB-verified additionality and no reversal events, but is severely undermined by an extraordinary volume of material findings, calculation errors, boundary violations, and data inconsistencies across multiple documents. The 0% leakage deduction with a 'deemed negligible' justification is questionable for a water-supply project, and the project-specific baseline adds conservatism concerns. Security-related disruptions (terrorist attacks, displacement) have degraded monitoring quality and necessitated multiple approved deviations.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Extremely high volume of material findings (30+ items) including ER summation formula errors, borehole count discrepancies (182 vs 156), crediting days calculation errors, and households beyond the 1 km boundary limit
• ⚠Gender participation data shows a stark contradiction: 95% male in the Project Survey vs 3.3% male in the Usage Survey, raising serious data reliability concerns
• ⚠Leakage deduction reduced from 5% in the PDD to 0% in the verification report with only a 'deemed negligible' justification, while the monitoring report references a 'quantified' approach — inconsistent treatment across documents
• ⚠Crediting period start date for VPA GS11083 was postponed by more than 2 years from the original PDD date, and the crediting period itself differs between the verification report (2022–2030) and the monitoring report (2023–2028)
• ⚠8 boreholes removed from the project and 8 failed water quality tests, yet the project continues to claim emissions reductions across the full borehole portfolio

Credit Vintages