Research & Development Surveys in Northern Oman - Final Report Vol II. Water

A detailed study of Omani hydrology giving insight into traditional livelihoods at a time when people were abandoning land for jobs in oil, the traditional Falaj system was being challenged by new pumps, with Oman increasingly dependent on food imports. Original black-printed red wraps with black cloth spine 22x30cm. (1), ii, 183pp + (79)pp containing 78 full-page and 1 folding illustration in 2 colours or b/w as issued. Wraps very good with tear to spine tail, interiors fine with binding a little tender. The whole series appears to be rare with Worldcat and Library Hub recording single or assorted volumes at 8 institutions between them. This self-contained volume is part of a 9 volume series that also covers land systems, farming, fisheries, marketing, the people, a geographical introduction, summary conclusions and recommendations, and maps and diagrams. This major multi-disciplinary survey was directed by Professor Howard Bowen-Jones, who secured sponsorship from the Omani Government and Shell not long after independence in 1972. The findings and recommendations generated further work (funded by Shell, which via PDO made major new discoveries in Dhofar in 1978) and led to the creation of Durham University's Centre for Overseas Research and Development in 1981. The survey covered the Batina and Dhahirah regions and their main catchment areas (Wadis Hawasina, Juffra, Al Kabir, and junction of Wadis Al Jijr and Lusayl). It included aquifers and various types of well (pump, bucket etc) at several locations, studying water and pumping levels, quality, costs, etc. An important chapter describes the Falaj - the traditional village structure centred around and dependent on water distribution - the basis of social unity that was being disrupted by the introduction of well pumps. It distinguishes several types in operation, from the simplest diversion channel to the most complex fan of underground tunnels or galleries tapping individual springs linked to a network of distribution channels serving a large cultivated and settled area. The illustrations include many regional and localised maps for wadis, wells, aquifers, cultivated and once cultivated land and Falaj systems, water routes and adjacent gardens, changing extraction patterns due to pumps, etc. Falaj are stylised in 2 beautifully drawn diagrams. One has multiple inset cross-sections and views showing the "Anatomy of a small Falaj" featuring a fort, mosque (with access for washing), village quarter, date gardens, channels (stone or cement lined or unlined), alfalfa and wheat lands. The other, a birds-eye view "Sketch of a small Falaj" presents similar information. There is a cross-section of a traditional Zagira (ox-walk) well showing its parts including palm trunk, pulleys, ox walk etc, and drawings of a Zagira bucket filling and emptying. Another drawing outlines a human figure to show traditional units of measurement in well digging, the height being "I Kama", arm span "I-Ba'a", and from the elbow to the fingertips "I-Dhra'a". Others show terrace construction. The charts show yields, efficiency, extraction rates, falaj flow rates, diesel consumption of pump wells, rates of pay for diggers, costs for well deepening, new wells, new pump wells etc. (References: Dept of Geography, "A History of the Department of Geography 1928-2020", Durham University, 2021: 34; Christian Science Monitor "Oman's Uneasy Sultan", 20 Mar 1980; OCLC 8095584, 606073054).…