Page 351 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter Eight

After the Development Office had assumed responsibility for
health, more clinics were opened or rebuilt (Sharjah, Daid, JazTrah al
Za'ab, Umm al Qaiwain) and existing facilities were upgraded. The
hospital in Ra’s al Khaimah was enlarged to 60 beds. Soon after the
health adviser was appointed, a smallpox vaccination campaign was
organised after an outbreak in the summer of 1967 in Dubai. A
longer-term task was the organisation of malaria control. “The
incidence of malaria, particularly in Ra’s al Khaimah, the East Coast
and the mountain areas, has been a cause for concern, and in May
1967 the W.H.O. Regional Malariologist, Dr H. j. Van der Kaay, paid a
visit to various areas of the Trucial Slates. He reported that malaria
definitely existed in certain areas and was responsible for about 50
per cent of the illness in the Fujairah and Kalba regions of the East
Coast. He considered that whereas a complete eradication program
would be difficult without a similar campaign being launched in
Muscat, certain control measures could be adopted and that a survey
team from W.H.O. should carry out a more intensive survey."120 This
team arrived in early 1969.
From April 1967 to the end of 1970 the Development Fund shared
with the Ruler of Dubai on a fifty-fifty basis the expenses of running
the Maktum Hospital.127 In 1970 responsibility for the clinic and the
maternity ward in Umm al Qaiwain was handed over to the
Government of Abu Dhabi.
During the late 1960s the Development Office increasingly used its
resources to co-ordinate and organise interstate projects. In August
1970 some cases of cholera were diagnosed in Dubai and Umm al
Qaiwain, and a campaign was organised by the Maktum Hospital in
which some 60,000 people were vaccinated.
:
Agriculture ■
Traditional agriculture in the Trucial Stales did not pay much
attention to gardens other than date groves. Some limes, mangoes,
tobacco and lucerne were grown, but vegetables did not form part of
the diet and were not grown. One of the reasons for establishing the
agricultural trial station at Diqdaqah in 1955 was to find out which
crops could best grow under the difficult climatic conditions in the
silty soil and using local ground water. Owners of date gardens were
encouraged to use uncultivated land near their gardens or to develop
new areas to grow suitable fruit, vegetables, and animal fodder for
marketing in the villages and towns. This meant that better

326