The canals are owned and operated by utilities. Even if they pass through a farm or whatever, they're still owned and operated by utilities. It's kinda like a sidewalk/easement: you have to maintain it, but if the city wants to come in and tear it up to rebuild, there's not much you can do to say no. And more importantly, they're not split up (i.e. one company owns a three-mile section, then another company owns a few miles, etc.); they're owned by one company start to finish between the reservoirs they connect.

It's great because it reduces water evaporation and algae growth, and the water that evaporates anyway cools the panels to make them more efficient. Plus nobody gets mad about the eyesore because it's literally an improvement of otherwise unusable space.

Hydrogen is absolutely incredible for efficiency, reliability, emissions...it's great at nearly everything except energy density, which it's absolutely God awful at. Unfortunately energy density is by far the most important aspect of a practical vehicle, because nobody wants to drive around in a tanker full of literal rocket fuel just to have a range beyond a hundred miles. There's a reason the space industry has all but abandoned LH2. I can see it being an incredible alternative to battery storage at a utility scale, but not at a vehicle scale.