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In a country with very little rainfall the distribution of water for agricultural or domestic purposes is matter of great importance. Originally people settled where the water was – around wells and springs. These are fed by subterranean water that has collected in the ground in those places where impermeable layers prevents it from sinking deeper. This water is relatively close to the surface and can dry up during periods of drought.

  An old method for bringing the water from a deep well to the surface to use for irrigation was practiced on the east coast and in Ras al Khaymah until recently.

  A ramp was built, sloping down away from the well. A bull was then trained to walk down the ramp, pulling a rope across a pulley. The rope was attached to a goat-skin bag. As the bull walked down the ramp, the water was drawn up and then tipped into a trough that fed the irrigation channels leading to the fields. When the bag was empty, the bull was turned around and walked back up the ramp, lowering the bag into the well. This process would be repeated for hours on end.

  Sometimes the soil around a spring or well would not be very suitable for agriculture. Fertile land would be further away and therefore people began to think of ways in which water could be brought over long distances to their fields.

  The mountains have larger supplies of water, with permanent pools or aquifers (seams in the rock that bring water to the surface) in many places. Thousands of years ago ingenuous people learned how to bring this water from the mountains to their fields, sometimes over great distances. No bulls were needed for this process, for they used the power of gravity.

  The falaj-system consisted of a mother well, a system of tunnels that sloped down from the mother well to the surface lower down the mountains, a sharia – a container or pond where the water was collected, and a series of irrigation channels or aflaj (plural of falaj) that led the water to those sites where it was needed. These last channels were often partly covered with big slabs of rock, to protect the water.

  The process of building this system was started by finding the mother well – the source of permanent water in the mountains. Often it was a surface pond or spring, sometimes a well had to be dug to reach the water source. Then the point at which the water had to emerge from the mountain near the fields was determined and the slope of the tunnels that had to be dug was calculated. This slope depended of course on the location of the mother well and the distance over which the water had to be transported. It had to have a gradient of anywhere between 1/500 to 1/2500; the smaller the gradient, the slower the speed of the water. Slow speed was necessary so that the water would not erode the tunnel and cause tunnel collapses. The digging of the tunnels was usually started at the lower end, sometimes at both ends at the same time. A ventilation shaft to the surface was dug every 20 meters, or so. This shaft also served as access to the tunnels for cleaning and maintenance of the system. The rim of the shaft was heightened by a rim of stones and baked clay to prevent debris being deposited into the tunnels by water runoff during rains. Recently some old ventilation shafts in a wadi near Al Ain were provided with cement rims, which are more durable but not quite as picturesque as the old ones. The tunnels were just as wide as a man. Sometimes, small boys used to go down the ventilation shafts for cleaning jobs, as they were more comfortable in the confined space. However, if the fathers thought there was a significant risk, they would go themselves to do this job. The underground channels stretched over many kilometers. The oasis of Al Ain depended on such a falaj-system that brought water all the way from the Hajar Mountains, some 20 kms away. Once the main tunnel was completed, side tunnels were sometimes made into the area around the mother well in order to enlarge the drainage area and increase the flow of water.

  Until recently it was thought that the falaj-system originated in Persia, where it is called qanat or karez. Most of the qanats were found in Iran, around the extensive plateau, which forms central Iran. There are also qanats in western China (the beautiful city of Turfan depends on qanats for its water), Afghanistan and on the North African continent, from Lybia and Algeria to Morocco. The Romans introduced the idea to Egypt and Syria where the tunnels were built by slaves. As soon as the supply of slave labour dried up, so did the tunnels; without  regular maintenance they clogged up in no time.

  Quite recently solid evidence has been provided that the falaj-system that was used in Arabia preceded the first use of qanats in Persia. Archeaolgical discoveries in Hili and Qarn bin Saud near Al Ain have shown that the system was in use 3000 years ago. Covered tunnels and sharias were laid bare, quite deep under the present surface of the desert. Pottery shards found in and near the sharia were carbon-dated to the Iron Age, 1000 BC. Dr Walid al-Tikriti, who has done archeological work for some 30 years in the Al Ain area, wrote about this discovery in a recently published book. Since the publication of the first work, more evidence has been found to support the premise that the idea of the underground water channels was an Arabian one.

  The falaj-system is clever in many ways. First, because gravity is used to bring the water to the place where it is needed, there is no machinery involved that is costly and can break down.

  Secondly, by keeping the water underground for most of its journey, evaporation and pollution are kept to a minimum. Thirdly, the system allows for a judicious division of available water to all the people who need it.

  The water was put into multiple use. Where the water entered the sharia it was used for drinking. Then came the bathing areas, usually constructed separately for men and women. Channels then ran through mosques and forts to provide water there, eventually reaching the mughisla where the dead were washed. Finally the water emerged into the gardens. Here the water was divided by means of a complex share-holding system of rotation and time-allocation. The period of time during which a person could irrigate his fields was measured by the increase in the length of a man’s shadow or at night by the movement of the stars. The amount of water also depended on the type of soil. The finer the soil, the longer the cycle.

  There is also deep underground water in the non-mountainous areas of the country. These deeper layers of water can be brought to the surface by artesian wells or by pumping. This fossil water, as it is called, is not inexhaustible. Its recharge takes place over many centuries, if at all. In the UAE it has been used extensively during the last decades of incredible expansion in the UAE and it will soon no longer be available.

  One way to increase the amount of accessible water is to prevent its run-off during rains. For this purpose dams have been built across water streams ever since man began settling and tilling the land. Lately in the UAE, dam building in the mountains has been undertaken on a grand scale in order to meet the ever-increasing demands of the local population. This water is mainly used to replenish the ground water by preventing rainwater to flow out into the sea. The manmade lakes that are the result of the damming have become popular recreation spots, such as the lakes at Hatta, in wadi Shii near Khor Fakkan, wadi Bih and wadi Zikt.

  In the coastal areas the water that is used for irrigation partly comes from desalination of sea water (the main source of water used nowadays) and partly from treated sewage. This latter source of irrigation water could be increased by introducing a method that has been tried and proven abroad: sewage ponds for collecting sewage combined with reed beds in which this fluid is purified. The water produced in this way is even suitable for drinking, but is usually used to water gardens and parks. In the UAE the system could be installed in every project where a lot of sewage is produced, such as hospitals, hotels, villa compounds, and schools. Apart from being inexpensive there is the added advantage that the reed beds provide greenery and attract birds. As long as the water is being circulated at a sufficient rate there would have to be no need to fear the occurrence of harmful insects such as mosquitoes that only breed on standing water.

  In the mountains deep cisterns used to be cut into the ground and lined with rocks to hold rainwater for domestic use. Some of it may have been used to irrigate fields but there is not much evidence of this, such as channels running from the cistern to the fields. In any case, the water in the cistern would have been barely enough for drinking and washing during the dry season and would not have been enough to make a difference to the crops.

  The huge afforestation projects along the edge of the Rub al Khali (Liwa) in Abu Dhabi emirate are irrigated mainly by drip irrigation with desalinated water, brought down from the coast. Many of the dunes there have been flattened by bulldozers to be turned into agricultural fields. They are often watered by water cannons – a method in which much water is lost through evaporation, especially in our dry desert climate. Water cannons are also in use on agricultural fields near Ras al Khaymah. A similar system near Dubai uses treated water from the nearby sewage plant. These fields are favourite foraging places for migrating and resident birds and are visited every weekend by birding enthusiasts. 

  Water is the true elixir of life and there are predictions that the world will run out of usable water before the end of this century. Methods of water conservation should become taught at all schools and should be the subject of TV spots to teach adults. There are many ways in which even one individual can contribute to saving water that is needed for drinking, bathing and growing the food we need.