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🇦🇷 Argentina /Elections & Politics

Waterworks: Lawmaker Says Government Put $354.197 Billion Into Financial Speculation

From La Nación · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Documents & data Context piece
  • Buenos Aires lawmaker Silvina Vaccarezza said 354.197 billion pesos from the Water Infrastructure Trust Fund remain in financial instruments rather than being used for water projects.
  • She said 303.370 billion pesos are invested in National Treasury bills, 47.200 billion are held in a traditional fixed-term deposit, and 50.779 billion remain in a current account.
  • Vaccarezza linked the issue to urgent flood-prevention needs and criticized Economy Minister Luis Caputo, while noting that work on the Salado River project had resumed after a suspension.

Silvina Vaccarezza, a Buenos Aires provincial lawmaker, says 354.197 billion pesos intended for water infrastructure are sitting inside the financial system instead of being used to prevent floods. She described the funds as being in a “financial roulette” and said the figures came from a public information request about the Water Infrastructure Trust Fund.

According to the information cited by the lawmaker, 303.370 billion pesos are invested in National Treasury bills. Another 47.200 billion are held in a traditional fixed-term deposit called the Liquidity Reserve, while 50.779 billion remain available in an account. Vaccarezza stressed that the figures were not an opinion but data obtained through the access-to-information process.

She argued that the money has a specific legal purpose and should be supporting flood prevention and improvements to water infrastructure. Meanwhile, she said, producers are watching the skies anxiously for rain, rural roads need work, and towns and cities are still waiting for projects to protect them from flooding.

The data are not an opinion. I obtained them through a public information request to find out what was happening with the Water Infrastructure Fund.

· Silvina VaccarezzaThe lawmaker explained the source of the figures on the fund's holdings.

Vaccarezza also pointed to the Salado River works, which the national government stopped last year along a 30-kilometer section. The project restarted months later amid flooding in west-central Buenos Aires province and complaints from agricultural producers. More recently, the number of dredgers operating there reportedly rose from three to 10.

The lawmaker criticized Economy Minister Luis Caputo, saying his priority had never been production or productive investment. “The only economic program is financial speculation,” she said. She concluded that resources legally assigned to waterworks were still circulating through financial instruments while communities in the province awaited concrete infrastructure.

The only economic program is financial speculation.

· Silvina VaccarezzaShe criticized Economy Minister Luis Caputo's economic priorities.
About this summary

Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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