Page 410 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

Tlw Formation of the Federation

towns and the surrounding countryside into neat rectangles with a
roundabout at each intersection.
In the late 1960s, as the economy expanded, the more wealthy
were able to build new houses to replace the harasti or mudbrick
compounds they had previously lived in. The great majority of local
families still could not afford to do this, and the governments started
to supply these families with new accommodation, built in concrete
and provided with electricity, sewage disposal, and running water.
This was a very decisive step towards transforming the way of life of
large numbers of families. A scheme to provide so called “low-cost
houses” for nationals of the Emirates was started in Abu Dhabi in
1966, and by 1976 some 5,000 houses had been given to these families
in Abu Dhabi town, al'Ain, Bida’ Zayid, and in new villages built to
settle the beduin population along the Abu Dhabi—al 'Ain road.145
This created a demand for similar housing in other Emirates. In the
early 1970s the government of Abu Dhabi built similar low-cost
quarters in Fujairah, Ra’s al Khaimah, ’Ajman and Umm al Qaiwain
without the involvement of a federal ministry. The example of Abu
Dhabi was also taken up by some of the other Rulers, who built
similar houses in their own States; such schemes also served the
purpose of assuring the inhabitants of outlying villages such as
Hatta or Jazlrah al Hamra’ that they were not forgotten and that their
Ruler or the central government did not confine their activities to
improving and changing the capitals. Eventually the federal mini­
stries took over responsibility for new housing schemes throughout
the Emirates.
In 1977, implementation of these schemes was speeded up when
public works, housing and town planning were combined under one
ministry. At the end of 1977 some 3,000 low-cost houses had been
built, and during 1978 over 700 more were constructed in the
northern Emirates.146 Of the nearly 8,000 applications for low-cost
houses received by the federal ministry by the end of 1977, almost a
fifth were applications from within Dubai; only Ra’s al Khaimah
registered more applications, some 30 per cent of the total. It can be
seen from the names of the various sites, nearly sixty in all, that even
the very remote settlements in Ra’s al Khaimah and Fujairah Emirate
were included, usually obtaining at the same time new mosques, a
school and a clinic. In Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the local governments
also continued their own housing schemes.
In Abu Dhabi and to a lesser degree in Dubai many of the recipient
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