In 1995, after five years of one of the worst droughts of the century on the Iberian Peninsula, the Spanish government begun work on a $28 billion network of dams and canals to divert water from its lush, verdant north to its dry south. The plan, involving three major rivers, also envisaged recycling water, modernizing infrastructure and discouraging waste in an effort to reduce one of the highest levels of per capita water consumption in the world.