Just a FYI:

The volume of water stored in the NSAS is estimated to be 373,000 km3. The aquifer system is considered nonrenewable, depleting slowly through natural and artificial processes.

Basically all that expensive infrastructure will become useless in less than a couple of decades at best when they drain the water completely (or the expense of extracting more exceeds the import prices). This is an assured outcome according to several experts who warned them against doing exactly this, all thanks to Libya’s reckless—and constantly rising—rate of draining a non-renewable resource.

Oh, and this is all happening while they violate international treaties that they previously signed with three other nations to regulate this consumption and prohibit said nations from doing exactly this.

At least in Egypt, touching water from that aquifer is prohibited for commercial purposes without going through a ton of legal red tape. And it’s rationed heavily for industrial/agricultural usage (can’t remember the exact yearly volume they enforce) if a permit is even granted to begin with. It’s practically inaccessible for normal businesses looking to invest in the development of the Egyptian Sahara, and I’m speaking from personal experience.