Connect with us

International

Argentine water and sanitation privatization plan rejected

Photo: Diario La Mañana

November 24 |

The president of the state-owned Agua y Saneamiento Argentinos (AySA), Malena Galmarini, rejected Wednesday the intention of the president-elect of that country, Javier Milei, to privatize a group of public companies, among them the one she has been directing for four years.

Through social networks, Galmarini responded to statements made to a television station by the leader of La Libertad Avanza (LLA), who said that AySA worked very well when it was Aguas Argentinas and was private.

“Everything that we can transfer to the private sector, it is better that the sector does it (…) What has been proven is that everything that the public sector does, it does badly”, said Milei, who during the same interview also expressed that he will privatize Ferrocarriles Argentinos.

Advertisement
20240506_crecerjuntos_720x90
20240426_bcr_censo_728x90
20240502_censo_jorge_728x90
20231223_factura_electronica_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230816_dgs_728x90
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
CEL
CEL
SSF
SSF
SSF
previous arrow
next arrow

Galmarini assured that Aguas Argentinas “only extended the networks to the neighborhoods where they could pay”, so it prioritized financial profitability over the attention to consumers and the quality of the service.

He added that “AySA, only in these four years, built 4,000 km of networks, included 1,500,000 neighbors in the water network and 1,600,000 more in the sewage network. We worked with international credit organizations to advance in transcendental works and also in the home connections of humble families”.

He also reminded Milei of estimates made by the World Health Organization (WHO) that for every dollar invested in water and sewage, seven dollars are saved in the health sector. “Not everything is the same. Not everything works badly!” he questioned the libertarian.

In early November, the secretary general of the Sanitary Works Union, José Luis Lingeri, also opposed statements made by Milei and LLA followers in the direction of privatizing water and sewage services.

Lingeri then defended the value of water as a fundamental right after Milei expressed in a meeting with businessmen that “a company can contaminate a river as much as it wants”.

Advertisement
20240506_crecerjuntos_720x90
20240426_bcr_censo_728x90
20240502_censo_jorge_728x90
20231223_factura_electronica_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230816_dgs_728x90
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
CEL
CEL
SSF
SSF
SSF
previous arrow
next arrow

The union leader expressed that the contamination of water courses “is wreaking havoc in the world” and recalled that “every day 4,000 children die (globally) for lack of safe water and sanitation system”. “To say that water has a zero value is to ignore the existence, that water is life and that it is a universal right and a human right,” he stressed.

In reference to Aguas Argentinas and private management, Lingeri assured that “during privatization, the service was only extended to those who could pay, excluding the vulnerable and disadvantaged sectors. This situation highlights the relevance of the State in guaranteeing access for all”.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
20240506_crecerjuntos_300x250
20231223_factura_electronica_300x250
20231124_etesal_300x250_1
20230816_dgs_300x250
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_300X250
MARN1

International

Geert Wilders reaches a provisional agreement to form a government in the Netherlands

The leader of the Dutch extreme right, Geert Wilders, reached a “provisional” agreement on Wednesday to form a government with three other center-right parties, which he will now send to the Dutch Parliament for debate, although they have not yet agreed on behalf of the candidate for prime minister.

As announced by Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party (PVV), there is already a “provisional” agreement with the other three center-right parties: the liberal VVD, the Christian Democrat NSC and the BBB farmers’ party, although there are still disagreements about pensions and “the discussion about who will lead that government will be resumed at a later date” because they have not yet decided on this point.

Wilders won the general elections on November 22, but had to resign his aspiration to the position of prime minister to unblock the dialogue with the other parties.

Continue Reading

International

Diana Boluarte goes to a new interrogation of the Attorney General for the ‘Rolex case’

The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, arrived this Wednesday unexpectedly at the headquarters of the Public Ministry to be interrogated by the interim Attorney General, Juan Carlos Villena, as part of the preliminary investigation opened for the crimes of corruption and bribery by the so-called ‘Rolex case’.

Boluarte arrived at the tax headquarters, in the historic center of Lima, at 9:20 a.m. (14.20 GMT) sheltered by a large police security display and entered aboard an official van with dark moons.

As has happened on previous occasions, the ruler is not expected to offer subsequent statements about this interrogation.

Continue Reading

International

The filmmaker Rasoulof will go to the Cannes Film Festival after fleeing Iran, according to his lawyer

Iranian filmmaker Mohamad Rasoulof, who fled his country after being sentenced to eight years in prison, will go to the Cannes Film Festival to present his film ‘The seed of the sacred fig’, his lawyer Babak Paknia told EFE.
“He (Rasoulof) will participate in Cannes,” Paknia said on Wednesday.

Rasoulof will present his film ‘The seed of the sacred fig’ at the French festival, which is about a judge who deals with the protests unleashed by the death of the young Iranian Mahsa Amini in 2022 after being arrested for not wearing the Islamic veil well.

Some actors of the film, however, will not be able to attend since the Iranian authorities do not allow them to leave the country, according to Paknia, who also stated that they have opened a new judicial case against the director for the film.

“They have opened a new case for this new film,” said Paknia, who did not explain the charges.

Rasoulof announced two days ago that he had fled his country to Europe after being sentenced to eight years in prison, lashes and the confiscation of property for the crime of “collusion with the intention of committing crimes against the security of the country.”

The filmmaker, winner of the Golden Bear of the Berlinale with ‘The Life of Others’ in 2020, a film that deals with the death penalty in the country, has had numerous problems with the country’s authorities and has been sentenced to prison on three occasions.

He was last arrested in July 2022 for criticizing the repression of protests unleashed by the collapse of a building that caused dozens of deaths two years ago and eight months later he was released.

In recent weeks, Iranian courts have multiplied convictions against artists and academics who are critical of the Islamic Republic.

In one of the most noted cases, a revolutionary court sentenced rapper Tomaj Salehi to death for sedition, propaganda against the system and incitement to riots for supporting the protests unleashed by Amini’s death.

In those protests, young Iranians and women called for the end of the Islamic Republic and only disappeared after a repression that caused 500 deaths and the arrest of at least 22,000 people and in which eight demonstrators were executed, one of them in public.

Continue Reading

Trending

Central News