The Guardia Civil is looking into two firm executives for unlawfully taking more than 110,000 litres of water a day from a well and selling it to pig farms, businesses, and people to fill their swimming pools. To do this, they used an illegal well that belonged to a business in Puerto Lumbreras.
Guardia Civil personnel from the Nature Protection Service (Seprona) have confirmed that at least 50 million litres of groundwater were stolen as part of Operation Zahorí, which aims to check and keep an eye on how water is used, especially when it comes to unlawful groundwater abstractions. More than 100,000 litres of water were taken out every day and sold to farms, companies, and people.
The Guardia Civil started looking into the case after 128 people from the Lorca district of Zarzalico filed a complaint with the Seprona (National Police). They said that because there wasn’t enough water for livestock in the area, water tanks were being sent to these farms.
The Guardia Civil Seprona experts then started a monitoring operation to check what had happened and look for any unusual activities. This operation paid off soon after, as they found the place where the tanker truck was filling up.
The Guardia Civil kept looking into these leads for months until they found out that the tanks on the trucks were being filled on a farm in Puerto Lumbreras.
After that, there were a lot of follow-ups on the tanker trucks to make sure they were going to fill the tanks of pig farms. These farms were then checked and confirmed to be carrying and filling with water. These cars were also checked at residences and businesses that filled swimming pools, and this was done by checking delivery notes.
The Guardia Civil kept looking into the matter and found the well where the water was supposedly being taken illegally. Investigators confirmed that the well did not have a volumetric meter or any other measuring tool that may have counted the number of litres taken out.
The well was not authorised for use, and after investigations, it was possible to show that the company responsible for the events had taken 56 million litres of water from the well and sold it over the past 18 months. They had made at least 275,000 euros from the business. We can’t say how long this illicit use will last, but it might be for a long time, maybe even decades.
The Guardia Civil found and identified the two people who ran the company and the illegal well once they had all the evidence they needed. Investigators have charged them with crimes against the environment and natural resources, as well as groundwater usage.
During the investigation, Seprona experts made it clear that people were illegally taking water from a well without permission from the Segura Hydrographic Confederation (CHS) and selling it through tanker trucks to take it to different farms, businesses, and private homes in the area. Some of this water was used to fill swimming pools.
Author: Derek Appleton
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