Mekorot Admits to Consulting at AySA, and There Are Now 13 Provinces with Agreements with Israel
In the context of the official announcement of the privatization of Aysa S.A., Argentina's largest water company, we spoke with Gisela Cardozo, a member of the Mekorot Out Campaign and the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, who warns about the Israeli firm's unchecked expansion.
Rodrigo Savoretti Human Rights 08/14/2025
(photos in link)
On July 21, the Executive Branch issued Decree 493/2025, which modifies the Ownership Regime of Agua y Saneamientos Argentinos S.A. (Aysa), a state-owned company that provides drinking water, sanitation, and sewage systems to 15 million Argentinians.
The new decree repeals Article 2 of Decree No. 304/06, which established that the National State's stake in AySA was non-transferable. This modification enables the sale of 90% of the state-owned shares and transforms the company's regulatory framework.
The privatization of one of the largest and most strategic state-owned companies would be complete, as the colonial occupation government has admitted it will sell—probably at a rock-bottom price—its entire shareholding (90%).
On the other hand, it was confirmed that Mekorot, the Israeli company with contracts in at least 12 Argentine provinces, is advising AySA, a situation that was not publicly known and raised alarms among human rights organizations.
Enfant spoke with Gisela Cardozo, of the Mekorot Out Campaign and the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (APDH), who maintains that the Argentine company's recent decisions already reveal the influence of the Israeli firm: the commodification of water.
Alejo Maxit, appointed president of AySA in April 2024. Photo: Author to whom it may concern.
Mekorot, owner of Argentina's water?
The Israeli state-owned company, denounced before the UN for water apartheid practices in Palestine, confirmed that it provides advice to the Argentine state-owned company, a situation that was not public knowledge until recently.
The news came after statements by Diego Berger, head of special projects at Mekorot, in an interview with El Destape Radio, where he denied the rumor of a possible purchase of AySA (celebrated by the Undersecretary of Press of the Presidency, Javier Lanari, on the social network X).
In an attempt to distance himself from the rumors, Berger maintained that Mekorot's bylaws prohibit the purchase of assets outside of Israel. However, in the same conversation, the Israeli official confirmed that Mekorot is advising the national company.
These statements provoked a reaction from the Mekorot Out Campaign, which has been denouncing Mekorot's expansion in Argentina for years. This situation has been consolidated in the following provinces, where the firm has signed controversial and serious agreements with: Mendoza, San Juan, La Rioja, Catamarca, Río Negro, Formosa, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, Jujuy, Chubut, and Neuquén. Buenos Aires too?
A few days ago, the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights and the Mekorot Out Campaign submitted requests for information to Aysa, seeking to understand the nature of the Israeli firm's consulting services to the national state-owned company. They have yet to receive a response.
"This situation gives us cause to think—not to conspire or anything, because there is no need; there are already almost twelve provinces that have explicit agreements with Mekorot—that there may be another province that also has some secret agreement with them, and we don't know about it," says Gisela.
Cutting off access to water as it is to information
Water is to life what information is to the critical exercise of citizenship. Cutting off, or chainsawing, access to water and information violates two fundamental and essential human rights in times of climate change and information overload.
The changes to AySA's bylaws also imposed a paradigm shift: water cut-offs are now permitted when citizens are late with payments. Water, which until a few days ago was considered by the National Government, through AySA, as a common social good and a human right, is now understood as just another consumer product.
“Mekorot's vision of water is already reflected: treating it as a commodity, deciding who gets it and who doesn't, who benefits and who doesn't. That's what the Mekorot company knows how to do. Palestine is a witness to this, and now Argentina,” Cardozo points out.
The same thing is happening with information. And it's not a situation unique to this government:
“It's a process of erosion and fragmentation of access to information that has been going on since the previous government. This information should also be public, since the provincial states are required by the access law to provide it to us. There's no political will on the part of the various governments to give us information,” she denounces.
The concern, Gisela believes, stems from the Zionist firm's history in occupied Palestine and also from what has been learned about the agreement that Río Negro signed with the company, where it ceded intellectual property rights to the water resources in its territory. In other words, it granted Mekorot the transfer of user rights, control of information, and decision-making over the management of public water.
“Only the Río Negro case was able to come to light. There's nothing new about any of the other provinces; no other types of clauses could be accessed. Requests for information were made in the other provinces. In some of them, the agreement was accessed, but the agreement is one thing, and the fine print that isn't included in these documents is another,” the interviewee explains.
Wado de Pedro and his role in Mekorot's entry into Argentina
The Mekorot Out Campaign identifies former Interior Minister and La Cámpora leader Wado de Pedro as one of the people most responsible for Mekorot's arrival in Argentina. His efforts were key to the agreements signed between the CFI, the Zionist organization, and the provinces.
Cardozo recalls a meeting with the former official—and current national senator—when the first contract signatures were just beginning:
“From the APDH, we met with Wado de Pedro and presented him with all these complaints and background information about Mekorot. The truth is that the response was very sad, because they told us: 'Oh! We didn't know this was a company accused of violating human rights.' However, they continued to push for the agreement signatures despite our warnings,” the interviewee recalls.
For Cardozo, the interest in deepening relations with Israel is not exclusive to the current government, which aligns itself directly with Israel and the United States with a more than explicit level of subordination.
Israel, currently denounced for promoting genocide against Palestinians, enjoys broad acceptance among national political leaders, even though the Zionist entity is questioned by hundreds of nations around the world.
Argentina, which has been a global leader in the fight for justice and memory after the state terrorism promoted during the last civil-military dictatorship, promoting trials and providing reparations to victims, now finds itself classified as one of the nations complicit in an ongoing genocide.
“We have to understand that it's our water. And that it shouldn't be under the control of any foreign state or private company, much less in the hands of a company like Mekorot. This is nothing more and nothing less than national sovereignty,” the interviewee concludes.
(*)This article was written with the collaboration of Camille Dupeux.
En el marco del anuncio oficial sobre la privatización de Aysa S.A, la mayor empresa hídrica de Argentina, dialogamos con Gisela Cardozo, integrante de la
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