Uganda Gender Responsive Safe Water Project

Audit Analysis

The Uganda Gender Responsive Safe Water Project (GS-1542) is a Gold Standard certified avoidance project with a combined additionality test confirmed by the VVB, but it is burdened by 12 inter-document contradictions, five open Findings of Additional Requirements, a 0% leakage deduction with inconsistent justification, and an exact match between claimed and verified emission reductions that raises rubber-stamping concerns. The project's monitoring compliance is further weakened by an expired deviation for water quantity measurement that required full sensor implementation after March 2023.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Claimed and verified emission reductions are identical (51,658 tCO2e) for the 2023–2024 monitoring period, suggesting the verification may have simply confirmed the developer's figure rather than independently recalculating it.
• ⚠Five Findings of Additional Requirements (FARs 01–05) remain open, covering SDG indicator evidence, fNRB reporting at VPA level, and monitoring option justification — core MRV elements are unresolved.
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% in the verification report but 5% in the PDD, and the monitoring report does not address leakage at all; a material finding explicitly states the leakage analysis 'must be elaborated in detail.'
• ⚠The approved deviation for water quantity monitoring (SWDS 23) expired on 31 March 2023, after which full flow-meter or operational-sensor compliance was mandatory; no evidence of full compliance is documented.
• ⚠Twelve contradictions across documents span leakage, ERR figures, usage rates, fNRB method, crediting period dates, and benefit-sharing status, indicating significant data reliability problems.

Credit Vintages