"We cannot afford to give our water away frankly to anyone, let alone the Saudis, for free," If you can't afford to give your water away, then why does it matt

"We cannot afford to give our water away frankly to anyone, let alone the Saudis, for free," If you can't afford to give your water away, then why does it matter who it's being given to? I'm no fan of Saudi Arabia but the fault here is whoever decided to lease the land for $25 an acre and let them draw as much water as they want from it. It's always blown my mind that a government official that is only in power for a few years is allowed to sign leases for decades or even hundreds of years. The problem here isn't that a Saudi-run farm is exercising their right to run their farm how they please, the problem is that essential groundwater reserves should not have been leased to anybody, especially not long term leases for short term personal gains.