Page 94 - Arabian Studies (V)

84 Arabian Studies V
potable groundwater before its oil reserves arc exhausted. The main­
tenance of even the present extent of irrigated agriculture will then be
di fficult or impossible unless advanced technology can be applied; for
example, to reclaiming increasing amounts of domestic and industrial
effluent for its safe use in agriculture. While it is confidently expected
that domestic and industrial demand for water may be met by steadily
increasing the present capacity of seawater distillation plants, this will
be limited eventually by diminishing cheap energy supplies upon which
they are dependent. Large scale sea water distillation will therefore
become increasingly more expensive as local energy reserves diminish
and the recent decision by Saudi Arabia to initiate the long-term
planning of nuclear power and water distillation installations is in
recognition of this probability. The long-term future development of
Qatar therefore resides principally in the conservation of its limited
groundwater resources through investment in improved methods of
irrigated agriculture rather than undertaking an ambitious agricul­
tural expansion programme based upon meagre soil resources in an
adverse environment and the artificial augmentation of groundwater
supplies at a cost vastly in excess of any possible return, which may not
be sustained beyond the time when oil production revenues eventually
cease.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the Food and Agriculture Organisation of
the United Nations for permission to publish this paper, being a
synopsis of work undertaken during a three-year UNDP/FAO
Project ‘Integrated Water and Land Use*. He should also like to
thank his FAO colleagues and counterparts without whose work this
could not have been written.

Notes

1. The 1971 Census gives a total population of 111,000 but considerable
controversy exists over the present population. The Ministry of Information
Handbook (1973) records the 1972 population as 170,000. This would require
an annual population growth of 24 per cent since 1970 which, even with a high
immigration rate, is unlikely.
2. Sabkhah is the classical Arabic term and in common use in Arabia.
Locally sabkhah, pi. sibakh. Rentz in *Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd. edn.,
(under ‘Djazlrat al-‘ Arab’) notes the colloquial pronunciation for this word
as sabkhah. Sin and sad arc frequently intechanged in Qat ar.