Page 432 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

Notes

CHAPTER ONE
1 "This sel of facts is not given once and for all: between human society
and its context there is a constant and necessary interaction. If the
physical context in which man lives serves as a set of major
conditioning factors for society, so will society exert a moulding impact
on its natural surroundings." Nieuwenhuijze, C.A.O. van, Sociology of
the Middle East. A Stocktaking and Interpretation, Leiden, 1971, p. 47.
2 See Fisher, W.B., The Middle East: A Physical. Social and Regional
Geography, London. 1950, 2nd edn., 1952, pp. 439-44.
3 This was the average total recorded over 30 years at the longest-
established rainfall station at Sharjah (see: Trucial States Council,
Water Resources Survey, Draft Report, 1967). Between 1965 and 1968
more than a dozen new rainfall gauges have been installed throughout
the country (see: passim, Hydrological Yearbook, 1967/68. February
1969). Other stations have been in operation for some time at Tarff (Abu
Dhabi Petroleum Company) since 1962. in the Trucial Oman Scouts' Fort
at Jahili in the al 'Ain district, at the Political Agency in Abu Dhabi, and
in Diqdaqah in Ra’s al Khaimah territory. From the combined records it
can be seen that 95 per cent of the yearly rainfall is concentrated in the
six-month period from November to April, while 50 per cent occurs
during December and January. The variations in annual totals from year
to year are very great: in Sharjah they ranged from 0.3mm in 1961/62 to
258mm in 1956/57; see Government of Abu Dhabi, Department of
Development and Public Works, Water Resources Survey. Interim
Report by Sir A. Gibb and Partners, April 1969 (quoted as Gibb, 1969), p.
48. In Tarff 0.07mm were recorded in 1967 while 1964 showed 94.1mm
(see Gibb, 1969. p. 6ff). The yearly rainfall recorded at the newly-
established gauges exemplifies the assumption that rainfall varies
greatly in the different regions of the UAE; but even within one region

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