The external auditing of the Almuñécar Aquarium has come up with areas of faulty construction. In the opinion of the Mayor, Trinidad Herrera, this was because the work was carried out hastily to have it ready for the 2007 municipal elections.

The Town Council wanted the bad news to come from an independent source, to back the Town Council’s posture that the installations are not closed to the public out of choice, but out of necessity.

The Councillor under whose responsibility the Aquarium falls, Luis Aragon, considers that 11,000,000 euros in public funding, most of which came from the Junta de Andalucia, was ‘thrown at,’ this project. He underlined the ‘waste’ by pointing out that two huge air-conditioning units were purchased, but which have never been used as they were not intended for an atmosphere where water is in abundance; i.e., too humid. He also claims that whilst money was in abundance, these deficiencies were ‘covered over,’ but now that funds are scarce, this strategy was no longer possible and the installations have fallen apart.

Right from the day that the installations were opened to the public, says the Municipal Engineer, Juanjo Fernández, the inadequate waterproofing allowed water to seep through the walls so that 35 cm of water came out of the floor. As for the basement floor, today it is completely unserviceable and in a perilous state.

According to the independent report, the electrical installations, like the air conditioning, did not take into account the high humidity within the structure and as such were hopelessly inadequate. The list goes on with leaking fish tanks, peeling paint, broken pumps and missing parts.

The Spokesman for the independent auditing company, Manuel Pérez Alonso, went on to say that the installations fail the public safety regulations in all areas; health and safety in work areas and building regulations – in short, they were “a real danger to members of the public and staff.”

According to their evaluation, a total of 600,000 euros is needed to sort it all out – something that the Town Hall doesn’t possess, logically, for which reason they intend to rectify the problems in phases, as and when funds are available, starting with the safety issues.

The Mayor’s idea of having the installations reopened for mid July are plainly over optimistic.

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(News: Almuñécar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)