The CEO canceled a $100 million NEOM contract after the Saudis bulldozed villages

• Malcolm Au said he withdrew from the NEOM contract due to alleged Saudi human rights violations.
• Solar Water’s CEO told BI that he planned to build solar-powered desalination plants.
• Human rights activists say tribe members are being forcibly evicted to make way for the mega city.

A green energy founder pulled out of a $100 million NEOM contract after realizing the Saudis were bulldozing villages to make way for the megacity.

Malcolm Au, CEO and founder of Solar Water, told Business Insider that he initially partnered with NEOM to help realize its ambitions as a “green city” pioneering green energy.

NEOM is the focus of Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman’s 2030 vision project to diversify the Saudi economy away from fossil fuels and transform it into a luxury tourist destination and innovation center.

However, Au said he was so appalled by reports of human rights abuses that he canceled the NEOM contract in 2022, even though he had already built some of his own desalination plants there.

“They’re bulldozing their way through villages and everything, which is unbelievable,” Au said.

Aw spoke to BI next BBC News I mentioned that an exiled Saudi colonel said Kingdom of Saudi Arabia He authorized the use of lethal force to pave the way for it NEOM Sahara city.

Colonel Rabie Al-Anzi said that he had received orders to evacuate the people living on the land to make way for part of the project called Line. The area was mostly inhabited by the Al-Huwaitat tribe.

The BBC said it was unable to independently verify Al-Enezi’s statements about lethal force.

However, satellite images analyzed by the BBC showed that three villages, including schools and hospitals, were destroyed to make way for NEOM.

One of the villagers was called Abdul Rahim Al-Huwaiti He was later reportedly killed by Saudi authorities, The United Nations said.

“What I tried to do is turn the entire province into Dubai or Qatar or something like that, but by doing that, they are taking people who have been there for years out of the area,” Au said.

“These people can make a huge contribution to this whole development. As you know, whole villages have been removed.”

A descendant of Tiger Palm’s founder, Au Boon How, told BI that he was initially attracted to working on the NEOM project because of its commitment to green energy and the environment.

The company uses solar energy to desalinate water, while most desalination plants burn fossil fuels and are found to pollute the oceans. NEOM had offered the Solar Water company, which it owns, $100 million in exchange for the exclusive rights to use its technology.

NEOM’s planners say they want to become an “eco-city” with their signature project “The Line” – a mirrored vertical skyscraper cutting through the desert – Powered by 100% renewable energy 95% of the lands are preserved for nature. They claim to be committed to “respecting existing communities and cultural heritage within our region.”

But he believes promises are not being kept, and planners are backing away from their original vision for the city.

“What they are doing is not ethical and what they are doing is they are creating an exclusivity to house rich people in a rich tourist area. But that was not the original idea. The idea was to develop a green scenario,” he said.

“The whole idea we came up with is to make the place green, so that the people, the local people, the indigenous people who have been there a long time, can participate in the development,” Au said. “But then they change course. Suddenly, they are completely different from what we expect them to do, and so they do a lot of damage.”

NEOM declined to comment on O’s allegations. The Saudi Embassy in the United Kingdom did not respond to a request for comment.

Saudi Arabia is trying to suppress public criticism about it Vision 2030 plans.

Last year, the BI report said the campaign extended to those criticizing the evictions on social media, with Fatima El-Shawarbi being sentenced to 30 years in prison for speaking out.

The project has faced problems in recent months, with costs rising to an estimated $1 trillion and key projects being delayed or scaled back. in April, Bloomberg reported Saudi officials have reduced the number of people expected to live in NEOM from about one million to 300,000 by 2030. The report also stated that the length of the line could be reduced from about 100 miles to one mile.

He urged planners to stick to their original ethical and environmental vision.

“You know, we have the technology to solve this problem [green energy] The problem that people complain about today. definitely. definitely. But there is no vision or moral commitment.”