| Work Detail |
The works on the new water treatment plant being built in Ensenada were paralyzed. The Roggio Group, which was in charge of the work, withdrew from the property due to the impossibility of continuing with the contract.
This is one of the most important works for Axel Kicillof since it would serve to end the drinking water problems in La Plata, Berisso and Ensenada.
Sources from the provinces Ministry of Infrastructure explained to LPO that the national governments 118% devaluation broke all public works contracts. “The very high inflation in December and January forces us to renegotiate with the company,” they say.
Furthermore, they recognize that this work has “absolute priority” in Gabriel Katopodis portfolio of works and assure that we are working to reactivate it as soon as possible.
The workers abandoned the property when the construction company stopped receiving payments from the Buenos Aires government. In the first days of the year the movement of machines and personnel on the property located meters from the Río de la Plata was decreasing. Now he is paralyzed. Some of the workshops that had been built for the course of the work were even removed.
Kicillof announces that he will renew almost all the water pipes in La Plata that are more than 70 years old
The work was awarded to a joint venture made up of Benito Roggio e Hijos SA and Proba SA and the contract for the execution of the work was signed in March 2022. The work should have started at the end of April 2022, however it suffered a significant delay .
Two years after the signing of the contracts, the lack of progress in the work is significant. The project has an investment of more than $6.2 billion financed through the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF).
The new water treatment plant will replace the current one, Donato Gerardi, which has the capacity to provide service to 570,000 people, although currently, the districts of La Plata, Berisso and Ensenada have around 982,000 inhabitants.
The work involves the construction of a water intake from the Río de La Plata, a pumping station made entirely of reinforced concrete, with a maximum capacity of 13,500 m3/h; and two aqueducts located in ductile iron pipes for the transportation of raw and treated water.
Kicillof puts out to tender the La Plata water plant that Scioli never completed
This work is complemented by the pipe replacement project that is in the bidding process. A report by hydraulic engineer Claudio Velazco details that it involves the renovation of 197 kilometers of old pipes of the primary and secondary networks of the provincial capital.
According to the official website of the Ministry of Infrastructure, the opening of envelopes took place on February 10. However, the progress of the bidding process remains under evaluation, so the works have not yet been awarded.
There is an important fact that began to raise some concern in the provincial capital: the loan from the Andean Development Corporation for the construction of the Ensenada water treatment plant is subject to a Guarantee Contract signed on February 15, 2018 by Luis Toto Caputo -then Minister of Finance of the Nation- and that international organization.
Furthermore, on that same date a “Counterguarantee Contract” was signed between Caputo himself - as representative of the national State - and the then Minister of Economy of the province, Hernán Lacunza.
That contract would give the government of Javier Milei a key to paralyze the work. If the Nation withdraws the guarantor guarantee, the loan would fall. Perhaps the fact that the work has begun is decisive for its continuity.
Another complementary work to the water treatment plant may suffer the same fate: it is the aqueduct to Parque San Martín (a plant located in the urban area of ??the city of La Plata). This work is financed by a Kuwaiti fund and could also be tied to the decisions made by the national government. |
