Government of Argentina advances in privatization of public water company

Published at: 08/10/2026 12:21 PM

The Argentine government took a new step in its policy of dismantling the State by presenting economic offers for the privatization of Argentine Water and Sanitation (AySA), the public company responsible for providing drinking water and sewerage services to the city of Buenos Aires and 26 municipalities in the homonymous province.

The Argentine Ministry of Economy explained that the business group Rowing led the proposals with an offer of 340.2 million dollars, followed by the Roggio conglomerate with 285 million dollars. Under the scheme promoted by the administration of President Javier Milei, the State will hand over 90 percent of the company's shares to private hands and will impose a concession for a period of 30 years, with the expectation of raising close to 500 million dollars at the expense of public assets.

The delivery plan, protected by the questioned Basic Law approved in 2024, which authorizes the sale of national strategic assets, includes private investment commitments in the order of 1,870 million dollars for the period 2027-2031.

However, the contract postpones basic coverage to distant goals: it requires only 75.3 percent of drinking water by 2031 and transfers the commitment to achieving levels greater than 90 percent of access to vital resources to three decades.

To justify the auction of the main healthcare operator in the South American nation, the Executive called previous state management an “administrative dysfunction”. While the worker sectors will keep a negligible 10% of the shareholding through the Participatory Ownership Program, the delivery of basic services to private capital consolidates the severe fiscal adjustment plan and hypermarket against the fundamental rights of the population.

Mazo News Team