Sierra Leone Safe Water Project

Audit Analysis

The Sierra Leone Safe Water Project is a Gold Standard-certified avoidance project displacing decentralized thermal energy consumption, with VVB-confirmed additionality and no reversal events. However, significant discrepancies across documents—including a 50% gap in the fuel non-replacement bias factor, a 0% leakage deduction contradicted by the PDD's 5%, and verified emissions reductions roughly 8× the pro-rata ex-ante expectation—raise material over-crediting and data-reliability concerns.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Verified ERR of 51,465 is approximately 8× the pro-rata ex-ante expectation of ~6,396 for the 2024 monitoring period (31,980 lifetime ÷ 5-year crediting period), indicating either a major ex-ante underestimation or a monitoring/claiming error
• ⚠Fuel non-replacement bias (fNRB) factor is 0.95 in the monitoring report (national default) but 0.63 in the validation report (local field measurement); the material findings list confirms the fNRB was updated to 63%, yet the higher 0.95 value appears to be used in monitoring, inflating claimed reductions by ~50%
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% in the verification report with a 'quantified' justification, but the PDD specifies a 5% deduction and the monitoring report describes leakage as 'deemed negligible'—three inconsistent treatments across documents
• ⚠Twelve contradictions identified across the document set, spanning leakage, fNRB, usage rates, additionality test type, and crediting period dates, undermining confidence in the internal consistency of the project record

Credit Vintages