Argentina's Minister of Agriculture, Julián DomÃnguez visited on April 25 the water plants of the Israeli national company Mekorot, which manages 80% of the country's drinking water, and the company Watergen, which obtains high-quality drinking water from the air in the atmosphere.
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In this framework, the head of the agricultural portfolio stated: "We are working to enhance agricultural production in Argentina and increase the resilience of our sector to climate change." For this, he referred to the actions that are being carried out to promote sustainable irrigation management, the incorporation of technology and the works to develop new infrastructure.
In this regard, he also indicated that "one of the objectives we have with this visit to Israel is to exchange experiences in the field of water resources, which allow us to enhance the productive capacities of Argentina."
The initiative will allow the incorporation of new infrastructure, the diversification of the productive matrix and the strengthening of regional economies. These investments, in addition, will generate more than 52 thousand jobs (between direct and indirect) while increasing our exports by more than 12%.
The national ministers visited the "Eshkol" water plant of the Israeli national water company Mekorot. It is the fourth largest facility in the world and the only one of its kind in that country, which is dedicated to filtering water from Lake Kineret (Sea of ​​Galilee) on a daily basis and improving its quality to meet the highest international standards.
Currently, the public company Mekorot manages almost 80% of the water resources used by Israel. It distributes more than 1,600 million cubic meters of water and is directly responsible for the treatment of more than 30% of the country's effluents.
In addition, it allocates a third of its annual income (valued at US$1 billion) to water infrastructure projects. In total, it has more than 2,500 employees. Later, they visited the facilities of the Watergen company, which offers pioneering technological solutions for obtaining drinking water.
Also participating in the tour were the Deputy Chief of Staff, Jorge Neme; Governors Raúl Jalil (Catamarca), Gustavo Bordet (Entre RÃos), Gildo Insfrán (Formosa), Rodolfo Suárez (Mendoza), Arabela Carreras (RÃo Negro), Sergio Uñac (San Juan) and Alicia Kirchner (Santa Cruz).
Also present were the head of INTA, Mariano Garmendia; and the undersecretaries of the agricultural portfolio Delfo Buchaillot (Agriculture); Javier Preciado Patino (Agricultural Markets) and Ariel Martinez (Political Coordination). The head of the Federal Investment Council (CFI), Ignacio Lamothe, also participated. ■