Page 151 - Arabian Studies (I)

MAN AND ENVIRONMENT IN EASTERN
SAUDI ARABIA
by J. H. STEVENS

While man-environment relationships have become of crucial
importance in the highly organised technological society of Western
Europe, they have not, as yet, become major issues in desert
ecosystems. Yet of all the world’s ecosystems, those of desert regions
are perhaps the most imperfectly understood. Even without the
presence of man, there exists a delicate balance between the
non-living environment and the plant and animal communities. In the
most primitive societies, man lives within the constraints imposed by
the environment and any dislocation to the system results in areas
becoming uninhabitable. However, as society’s requirements become
more complex and technologically orientated, the ecosystem can be
easily, and rapidly, disturbed, perhaps to the point where the
disturbance is irreversible, unless constant vigilance is maintained.
Fortunately, this extreme state is not evident in the Eastern Province
of Saudi Arabia and, indeed, the reverse is the case for there are
examples of where technology has improved the environment to make
it more suitable for human settlement.
Prior to the discovery of oil, Eastern Province exhibited the
dualism that characterises human society in desert regions. On the
one hand, there were the oases, such as those at al-Hasa or QatTf,
with their sedentary populations mainly engaged in cultivation with
some livestock rearing. In these oases, the cultivation of date palms
CPhoenix dcictylifera) assumed paramount importance but whether
this was due to human requirements or to an adverse physical
environment, man induced, is unclear. Fodder crops, such as alfalfa,
were of secondary importance. Such oases were located where there
was an accessible supply of suitable water — at al-Hasa, the large oasis
area was watered from artesian springs, but other small irrigated
areas, only a few dunums* in extent, relied on water in wadi gravels
that could be exploited by shallow wells.
* 10 dunums = 1 hectare
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