under this initiative between and the government launched the construction of five large dams which will allow irrigation of around farms covering ha in the central and northern regions for a total investment of usd 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