GS11134 Safe Water Rwanda

GS11134 | Safe Water, Rwanda is a people-focused Gold Standard project improving living conditions in the home.

Project Description: GS11134 | Safe Water, Rwanda

In Rwanda, 31% of people lack clean water access and about 3,000 children die each year from diarrhea.

Many people in Rwanda’s Southern Province rely on boreholes to provide clean water.

Poor maintenance of these boreholes has resulted in many falling into disrepair.

Local communities then use fossil fuels and/or non-renewable forest biomass from surrounding forests to boil water for purification.

This project (Voluntary Project Activity, VPA03) is a part of the Programme of Activities (PoA) GS 10959 “Safe Water Programme in Africa and Asia”.

It consists of the maintenance and repair of 30-100 hand-pumped boreholes in cooperation with a local NGO.

Local communities get safe water with the project ensuring water quality requirements are met, using chemical disinfection where necessary.

The replacement hand pumps used by the project are locally made.

The project’s boundary is the boundary of communities using the boreholes maintained by the project.

Sustainability Beyond Carbon

There is more to offsets than just carbon.

Each Gold Standard carbon credit is a tonne of verified climate benefit, no matter the type of project.

This carbon offset project provides multiple sustainability co-benefits beyond just carbon and helps link your climate response to improved sustainability.

Safe drinking water reduces the use of boiling as a means of water purification which reduces forest fuel use.

Reduced fuel use lowers the biomass removed from local forests which helps maintain their carbon stocks and biodiversity.

Access to safe water helps improve the the rural water cycle’s hygiene, social, economic and environmental issues.

Reduced indoor air pollution improves the health impacts of using smokey, open fires or traditional stoves to boil water.

Safe, clean water avoids many health problems linked to unsafe drinking water like diarrhoea, intestinal infections and parasites.

Typically, without the project, women and girls do the unpaid work of fetching and purifying water.

This minimises the time available to them for paid work, study, rest and social interaction.

Want to know more about GS11134 | Safe Water, Rwanda?

The project’s design and monitoring, validation and verification reports are publicly available here: https://registry.goldstandard.org/projects/details/3089