Page 204 - UAE Truncal States

The Traditional Economics

or mechanically pumped water wells made a dramatic expansion of
the cultivated area possible.
Whereas tunnels are characteristics of the a/ldj which serve oases
in the plains such as Buraimi, Daid or Mazyad, and which are also an
essential feature of all major villages in the mountain zone of central
Oman, another type of falaj is in use in the upper reaches of the
wadis. This type of falaj, also called ghayl, derives its water from the
streams running through the gravel of the wadi beds, frequently just
below the surface, which soak away to waste before reaching the
area suitable for cultivation. By building a dam across the wadi some
water is diverted into open channels either cut into the rock or
cemented with mud. These channels flow down either of the wadi
sides, sometimes crossing over through inverted siphons, and where
the wadi bed falls with a sleeper gradient than is necessary to
maintain a good flow of water in the ghayl. the latter forms a gallery
rising relative to the wadi bed.28 Particularly in Shamailiyah, where
many small settlements were actually in the wadis or very close to the
foothills, the ghayl falaj was often the predominant if not the only
source of water for the gardens as well as for domestic consumption.
Wherever there is a falaj in the Trucial Slates it is used to irrigate
more than one garden. Soon after a falaj enters the area of date
plantations the open channel reaches a place where it is divided into
several channels of equal width. Passing under the mud-brick walls
which enclose the individual gardens, each channel carries water in a
different direction and to other places for further division into
shallow trenches. Usually a whole garden is completely flooded
during irrigation; in some parts the earth is built up in little mounds a
few inches high dividing portions within a walled date garden from
one other.
The water of a falaj is distributed by * lirafa’; every so often the 'arif
on duty blocks one of the channels with a stone slab and opens up
another one to let the water flow into the gardens belonging to
someone else. In principle the water was shared equally between all
the owners of date gardens near that falaj, all of whom contributed
towards the cost of its upkeep by paying a fixed sum called mashd.
But some partners who owned larger, or several gardens, and
required more water to irrigate them could buy irrigation time for a
fixed sum per hour because other people had only a small garden
which was irrigated in a short time. All such payments were collected
by the 'arT/, and what was left of it after he and his helpers were paid

179