Mega projects have always had a catastrophic impact on the environment, as the “Anthropogenic”, or what is known as the era of the dynamic human activity and control of the globe. Nature has eroded and thousands of miles of desert and agricultural land have been allocated to build cities for these huge projects.
A clear example of this is the very large areas in desert and sea in the Gulf countries used compared to the density of the population. Majority of these countries did not consider developing the existing cities but rather sought to build new cities.
Given this, many environmental and geology scientists consider this severe pressure on nature and the environment to have caused serious damage, putting five cities in the Gulf countries among the twenty most polluted cities in the world.
Many scientists expressed their fear of severe climate changes as a result of encroaching on the environment, which may lead to fatal temperatures over time as a result of global warming, and the depletion of fresh water.
The question remains, will the NEOM project – called by the Saudi Crown Prince the City of Artificial Intelligence, or the City of Robots – harm future living in Gulf cities? That is of course in case the project succeeded, which is unlikely given the state’s budget deficit and the high cost of the project.
Saudi Arabia’s vision of 2030 of the Saudi Crown Prince is not promising. The high rates of income in Saudi Arabia before the oil crises and Trump’s presidency in USA, has deluded the Crown Prince who thought he can afford capital to build new cities from scratch regardless of the people’s living conditions.
Surprisingly, the Crown Prince has launched 5 projects, all of which were modern cities and none of them has been completed according to the same plan, which makes us suspect his ability to complete the NEOM project at such cost and this vision.
The 2030 Vision did not establish productive projects for the future of the Kingdom as the Saudi media marketed, and the question is why didn’t the Saudi Crown Prince direct the money he possessed and under his control of his people’s money, for productive projects that would benefit his people, provide them with job opportunities and reduce poverty, instead of pumping billions into a fictitious project in the kingdom’s desert to serve the “dreamers” of the world, as he says?
Why does bin Salman seek to please the world’s rich dreamers instead of fulfilling the dreams of his people? The only answer this is that bin Salman does not know the reality his people are living, and he knows nothing about their sufferings, problems of the Saudi street, the infrastructure crises, or what people really need.
Would the private sector benefit from the funds of those sub-projects that will be established in the NEOM project? In fact, the private sector companies will not benefit anything, as everything will go to the ruling family, and those in the crown prince’s clique of businessmen who will rise with him during his fight for the throne.
