Exaggerated, weird, unreal… Many qualifiers, Mega project of the futuristic city Neom in Saudi Arabia. Not for the less. Set in a straight line across 170 kilometers of desert, it’s a city with glow-in-the-dark beaches, millions of trees planted on uninhabitable beaches, a fake bear, or soaring trains. But now one more extravagance has been added, this is already a fact: Saudi Arabia has been selected to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games, where it will build a mega ski slope.
Neom, a sci-fi city already under construction and like Dubai that would make previous experiences look ridiculous, is an idea supported by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. It is a region where temperatures close to 40ºC are not uncommon and there is no access to drinking water. Its final size will be 26,500 square kilometers, almost the same as Belgium.
60 square kilometers ski resort
But none of this seems like an obstacle to establishing not only a city of millions of people, but also a city there. The 60 square kilometer ski resort will become a reality in 2026 as part of the city of Neom. To get an idea of the scope of the initiative, this ski resort called Trojena will feature airports, an industrial centre, 2,200 residences, 3,600-room tourist hotels and even transgenic products.
Neom and Trojena are being built in the Red Sea just 50 kilometers from the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba. The ski center to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games is located In a mountainous area with an altitude of up to 2,600 meters. Although this area is located in a rather desert country, it guarantees the practice of skiing, because around Gebel al Lawz Mountain, at an altitude of 2,580 meters, there is often snow in part of the winter. However, hosting the Asian Winter Games will require large amounts of artificial snow, which will require bringing large amounts of water from the Red Sea and then desalinating it.
Despite this, supporters and the Saudi government are promoting the initiative. example of sustainability They say Neom will be the first city with zero emissions because of its zero-emissions transportation systems.
Once the works are ready, Trojena would have 30 kilometers of slopes for skiing from December to March. In addition, an artificial lake with a length of about one kilometer will be built in the valley, where all kinds of water activities can be done in summer. A whole city of entertainment and tourism will rise next to it.
The environmental impact of all these actions is beyond doubt, as in Dubai and other residential areas built in the middle of the desert, It takes large amounts of CO2 to be released just to desalinate the water that residents and the entertainment industry need to consume. The Saudi government claims that the electricity needed to produce this desalinated water will come from solar panels, but experts have pointed out that this system never works properly in facilities of this size. The brine produced in the process can also cause serious damage to the seafloor.
Bedouin tribes were forcibly evicted
Although work on Neom began a few years ago, experts doubt it will be completed according to planned plans and even less within the announced timeframes. In fact, the photos collected by various internet portals show that the current state of the works is quite late.
In addition to the environmental impact, there are also complaints about the social abuses committed during the construction of this pharaonic city. Members of the ancient nomadic and Bedouin Huwaitat tribe inhabit the lands chosen to create Neom and Trojena.
Human rights activists claim two villages were evacuated and 20,000 members of the Huwaitat community were forcibly deported and without adequate compensation, according to the BBC. There was also the death of a man who refused to be evicted and started posting videos online about everything that was going on.
Link to Neom website: https://www.neom.com/en-us
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