Energy CEO said he canceled a $100M contract with Neom when he realized the Saudis were bulldozing villages to make space

The site of NEOM in Tabuk Province, Saudi Arabia. NEOM

• Malcolm Aw said he pulled out of a Neom contract because of alleged Saudi human rights abuses. 
• The CEO of Solar Water told BI that he had planned to build solar desalination plants. 
• Human rights campaigners say tribe members are being forcibly evicted to make way for the megacity. 

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

Malcolm Aw, the CEO and founder of Solar Water, told Business Insider that he initially got involved with Neom to help realize its ambitions as a pioneering green energy “eco-city.”

Neom is the centerpiece of Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 project to diversify the Saudi economy away from fossil fuels and transform it into a luxury tourism destination and innovation hub.

However, Aw said he was so appalled at reports of human rights abuses that he canceled the Neom contract in 2022, despite having already built some of his desalination plants there.

“They just, they bulldoze their way right through villages and everything, which is just unbelievable,” said Aw.

Aw spoke to BI after BBC News reported that an exiled Saudi colonel said Saudi Arabia authorized the use of lethal force to clear the way for its Neom desert megacity.

Col Rabih Alenezi said he was ordered to evict people living on the land to make way for a part of the project called The Line. The area was mostly populated by the Huwaitat tribe.

The BBC said it was not able to independently verify Alenezi’s comments about lethal force.

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

One of the villagers, Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti, was later reportedly killed by Saudi authorities, said the UN.

“What it tried to do is turn the whole province into Dubai or Qatar or something, but in doing so, they are clearing the people who have been there for years out of the area,” said Aw.

“These people could be such a contribution to this whole development. You know the villages have all been removed.”

Aw, who is a descendant of Tiger Balm founder Aw Boon Haw, told BI that he had initially been drawn to work on the Neom project because of its commitment to green energy and ecology.

Aw’s company uses solar energy for desalination, while most desalination plants burn fossil fuels and have been found to pollute oceans. Neom had offered Aw’s company, Solar Water, $100m for exclusive rights to use his technology.

Neom’s planners say they want to be an”eco-city,” with the signature project “The Line” — a vertical mirrored skyscraper cutting through the desert — running on 100% renewable energy and 95% of the land preserved for nature. They claim to be committed to “respecting existing communities and cultural heritage within our region.”

But Aw believes the promises are not being fulfilled, and planners are performing a U-turn on their original vision for the city.

“What they’re doing is not ethical and what they’re doing is they’re creating an exclusivity to house wealthy people in a wealthy touristic area. But that wasn’t the original idea. The idea was to develop a green scenario,” he said.

“The whole idea we came in is to make the place green, and for the people, the local people, the indigenous who have been there for ages, for yonks, to be able to share into development,” said Aw. “But then they change course. Suddenly, they are totally different from what we expect to do, and in doing so, they have done a lot of damage.”

Neom declined to comment on Aw’s claims. The Saudi embassy in the UK did not respond to a request for comment.

Saudi Arabia has been trying to quell public criticism about its Vision 2030 plans.

Last year, BI reported that the crackdown extended to those criticizing the evictions on social media, with Fatima al-Shawarbi sentenced to 30 years in prison for speaking out.

The project has been beset by problems in recent months, with costs spiraling to an estimated $1 trillion and key projects delayed or cut back. In April, Bloomberg reported that Saudi officials were reducing the number of people expected to be living in Neom from around one million to 300,000 by 2030. The report also said the length of The Line could be cut from around 100 miles to one mile.

Aw urged planners to stand by their original ethical and ecological vision.

“You know, we have the technology to solve the [green energy] problem that people are complaining about today. Absolutely. Absolutely. But there’s just not the vision or the ethical commitment,” he said.

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