Under this initiative, between 2014 and 2018, the government launched the construction of five large dams, which will allow irrigation of around 8 000 farms covering 40 000 ha in the central and northern regions, for a total investment of USD 1.3 billion. The Public Works Concessions mechanism is used to support construction. Under this plan, the state finances a part of the total cost, private investors build, exploit and maintain the dam, and the end users pay the license holder for water stored. There, future beneficiaries criticized the programme because they considered that the water would have a “high cost”, and “it was not fair” compared to other areas where the state was building directly.