Director of Aquópolis held for allegedly stealing water supply

The Civil Guard on Friday arrested the director of the Aquópolis water park, which is located in the Villanueva de la Cañada neighborhood of Madrid. Mariano Valverde was detained for alleged fraud connected to the water supply for the park.

Valverde, who was later released pending charges, is suspected of tapping 350,000 cubic meters of water from the Madrid public water supply, run by the company Canal de Isabel II. The theft of the water is alleged to have taken place over the last five years, at a cost to the utility of 500,000 euros, according to the Civil Guard.

The investigation was opened after a complaint was made by a local resident in June. The water park was thought to be drawing its supply from its own underwater wells, but these apparently dried up years ago, allegedly prompting Aquópolis to start stealing its water from Canal Isabel II in order to fill the large number of pools in its grounds.

The company is also suspected of having interfered with its water meters.

When the original complaint was made, Canal de Isabel II said that it was unaware of any such irregularities, and that it would wait for the results of an investigation by the Civil Guard into the accusations.

The Hydrographic Confederation of the Tajo, a public water-management body, confirmed in June that Aquópolis did not have official permission to extract water from wells, an obligatory requisite for any company or private citizen who wishes to use underwater supplies. If it had such permission, the company would have to pay a fee, as well as bills for the actual amount of water consumed.

The public body has no such record of the company making these payments, and said in June that it would take legal action to recover the money owed were Aquópolis found to be using the underwater wells. "That is a crime," a spokesperson said at the time. "One thing is not paying your bill, but acting fraudulently is a completely different thing."

For their part, Parques Reunidos, the group to which Aquópolois belongs, would make no comment on the accusations, instead reading a statement over the telephone to reporters, stating that: "Aquópolis has worked, and will continue to work, with Canal de Isabel II, and with the relevant authorities, to clear up the current situation and, if necessary, correct any kind of error that could have taken place on the part of the parties involved."

When the news of the accusations first broke, the company denied any wrongdoing. However, a regional government spokesperson, Salvador Victoria, confirmed at the time that the water meter at Aquópolis was at zero. In other words, that they were not paying for any water consumption at all, despite the fact that the park boasts 14 attractions that use water, two of which require huge quantities: the wave pool and the activity lake.