Will Fergie pull the plug on troubled water charity?

THE Duchess of York has been proud of her work as an ambassador for water charity the Aquiva Foundation.

But now there are questions over the foundation’s future, perhaps her celebrity support may dry up.

Sarah Ferguson became an ambassador of the Aquiva Foundation after meeting its CEO, a German entrepreneur called Florian Bollen, at a charity event.

The Duchess’s photo was displayed on the Aquiva Foundation’s website, which called her ‘ very engaged’ with the eco-charity’s work bringing affordable drinking water to people in need.

The foundation even boasted that Prince Andrew’s ex-wife used her ‘network of connections’ to ‘spread the word’ about the water crises in developing countries.

However, the foundation’s website has recently been taken down, its contact email bounces back, and the charity is in hot water for failing to file its accounts on time.

Due to the delay, the Charity Commission is contacting the Aquiva Foundation’s trustees, as part of its commitment to ‘uphold transparency’. The Commission served the Aquiva Foundation with a default notice earlier this year for failing to file its 2014 accounts. The documents were eventually submitted 524 days late.

In its most recent accounts available, for 2015, the Aquiva Foundation had income of just £250, compared to £52,300 the previous year.

When I called the charity’s accountants to ask whether the Aquiva Foundation is still operational, one employee said: ‘I can’t give you any information.’ Bollen set up the charity in 2011. He previously made a living building giant observation wheels, but two of the projects — the Great Berlin Wheel and the Beijing Great Wheel — were never built because of the ‘financial crisis’. He is now thought to be involved in the brewing industry.

A spokesman for the Charity Commission says: ‘All charities are required to provide information about their income and expenditure each year in order to uphold transparency — a key driver of public trust in charities.

‘The Aquiva Foundation is late filing its accounts so we will be engaging with the trustees to ensure that they comply with their reporting requirements.’

Sarah Ferguson’s spokesman was contacted for comment.