The chainsaw at work: Milei to shut down waterworks agency

Argentina’s waterworks agency Enohsa will cease to exist and have its projects transferred to the economy ministry’s water services department, a move that is ringing alarm bells among unions and provincial authorities.

The shutdown decision forms part of President Javier Milei’s “chainsaw” policy of austerity and plans to reduce the role of the State in the economy.

Economy minister Luis Caputo justified the decision by calling Enohsa a “den of corruption” in an interview with daily La Nación. Sources from the ministry told the outlet that the agency had evaded spending controls and had served as a slush fund for politicians.

Created in 1995, Enohsa has 527 projects under execution worth 338 billion pesos (US$347 million), according to federal database Mapa Inversiones. 

Some of the projects, such as the 40bn-peso expansion of Santa Fe’s potable water treatment plant, have been transferred to provincial administrations to be completed.

The sanitation workers union, however, claims that only 116 projects are still active at Enohsa as a result of the Milei administration’s policy of keeping infrastructure spending at a minimum.

Of these, 20 are works funded by the IDB, sources from the union told daily Página 12.

A source from the Buenos Aires infrastructure ministry told BNamericas that the Mapa Inversiones data cannot be corroborated.

“We don’t know if they're giving the correct update. We have no way of knowing,” the source said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source added that information on federal public works has become less accessible after the public works department was absorbed by the economy ministry.

The head of Río Negro’s water department, Pedro Sánchez, said most Enohsa projects in the province have been halted but are still listed as being under execution.  

In some cases, Enohsa works for which federal funding came to an end are having their contracts rescinded, Sánchez told paper Diario Río Negro.

Buenos Aires infrastructure minister Gabriel Katopodis, who served as federal public works minister in the previous administration, blasted the announcement to axe Enohsa.

“On top of the poverty they're creating, now they're adding health problems that will emerge because they will no longer be bridging the water and sanitation gaps,” he wrote on social media.