Page 101 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (II)_Neat

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Work on drilling an artesian well ha9 not, at the time of writing, been
successful. A good water supply would contribute greatly towards the development
of this island.
Government Hospital. Rs. 10,020. A property containing an old house
which has been demolished, in the Naim quarter of Manama, on the shore, including
an area in tho 6ea, was purchased from Messrs. Abdul Aziz Kosaibi and Brothers.
Plans were drawn up for the dispensary and outpatients department in consultation
with Dr. Holmes and Dr. Dame, and towards the end of the year work was
commenced on this part of the building which is being built on land reclaimed from
the shore. Above the dispensary there is a Hat for the Medical Officer incharge of
the hospital.
The main hospital, including wards, operation rooms etc., etc., is to be built
on the shore immediately south of the dispensary. There will be a road between the
Hospital and the dispensary and the two buildings will have separate entrances. The
dispensary is divided into two parts, for male and female patients, and the hospital
will also be divided into male and female wards.
Plans for the hospital are under consideration, the Public Works Department
obtained copies of plans of a large number of Indian Government Hospitals and
these have been carefully considered in drawing up the plans of the Bahrain
hospital in conjunction with all the medical authorities in Bahrain.

At the end of the year work of reclaiming the shore on the site of the dispen­
sary was still proceeding.
Naim was chosen as the location of the hospital as it is the part of Manama
farthest distant from the existing hospitals and nearest to the outlying villages.
Muharraq Girls* School. This building was constructed by the new Public
Works Department. The site of the School is a piece of ground in the centre of
Muharraq town which was purchased by the Education Department. The ground
available was not large and the school had to be planned to fit into the available
space. It is a two storied building containing two large class rooms and one smaller
room on the ground floor, two large rooms on the first floor divided by sliding doors
which can be opened in order to make one room, a staff room and a screened balcony
which can be used as a class room in the summer. There is a wide inside staircase
and a second stair which is mainly intended as a fire escape, suitable sanitary
arrangements, and outside the building, a gate house at the entrance of the
compound from the street. Verandas and windows which might be overlooked from
outside are suitably screened.
In this building a number of experiments have been made in different kinds of
roofing and ceiling methods and also in the use of coloured cement which has not
before been tried in Bahrain. In one room cement blocks carried on reinforced
cement beams are used and another ceiling consists of wooden chandals and rein­
forced cement without the usual bamboo strips and matting.
The new Girls’ School is the most modern building in Bahrain, excepting the
Bahrain Petroleum Company’s houses.
The work will be completed early in the new year. An adjacent house is being
purchased for the teaching staff to live in.
Manama Market Buildings. On behalf of His Highness Shaikh Sir Hamad
the work of rebuilding the “ Sook al Arba ” was undertaken. The whole of this
bazaar, which consisted of straw huts, was destroyed by fire about two years ago. It
was a providential fire. The old roughly built vegetable market, which became partly
under water at high tides, has been replaced by three metal market buildings, 150 x 50
feet, purchased in England, with cement floors and cement stalls which can be sluioed
down daily from the taps which have been put in at the end of each of the sheds.
Numbers of solidly built shops, constructed of stone and cement, have taken the place
of the palm branch huts and in some places two storied buildings have been ereoted.
Several of His Highness’s sons who own land on the edge of this bazaar are putting
up new stone built shops. This property is part of His Highness’s private estates.