Since 1000 liters of water equals 6.29 barrels of water, unless they plan to use a pipeline for their “river”, even at 50 cents, it could still get very expensive. I must check tomorrow and see what my utility is charging for water, which I believe is measured in cubic feet. If it is cubic feet per fluid barrel, that appears to be 4.21 cf/barrel.
Countries like Libya didn’t care about costs. It wouldn’t be the first time they spent billions on vanity projects.
The working theory also is that the upfront costs is huge, but it becomes self-sustaining over time by creating a hydrological cycle.