Page 103 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (III)_Neat

27
Great difficulties were encountered over town cleaning during the year. The large tins used
ns rubbish bins cost before the war from Rs. 2 to Rs. 3 but recently their price rose to Rs. 12, conse­
quently large numbers of them disappeared. Eventually the municipal council decided to replace
them with small walled enclosures built with stone and gutch, cement being unobtainable. Over 200
of these rubbish containers were constructed in different parts of the town.
As in Muharraq the number of pauper burials increased greatly, over 200 persons were buried
at municipal expense. Daily throughout the year between 400 and 500 paupers were given food,
consisting of a handful of dates, at the municipal garden. The municipality shared with the Govern­
ment the cost of this undertaking.
The municipal authorities co-operated with the Government in various anti-malaria measures
and also in issuing and distributing ration cards and supervising 90 Government ration shops
in Manamah.
Various drains and public washing places were repaired and cleaned out. Nearly 7,000 sheep
and goats and 1,900 cattle were examined by the municipal inspectors before being slaughtered and
2,500 dead animals, goats, donkeys, etc., were removed from the town and burned. The usual
inspections of coffee shops, cleaning of streets and markets and provision of sand on the roads after
rain were carried out during the year.
There were fifteen meetings of the council during the year and 19 sub-committees were
appointed. The decisions of the council included the writing off of old debts amounting to Rs. 12,700.
Muharraq Municipality, including Hedd. The revenue for 1362 was Rs. 51,000 and
the expenditure was Rs. 52,500. The budget for the year anticipated an income of Rs. 46,200, all
of which would be spent. Owing to the financial position no major works were embarked on and the
municipality confined its activities to routine duties. Even the normal work of town cleaning, repair­
ing roads and looking after cemeteries, washing places and markets cost considerably more than in
the past owing to the increase in wages and prices.
During recent years Manamah has developed into the commercial centre of Bahrain at the ■
expense of Muharraq. Trade in Muharraq has declined. When the diving industry was flourishing
Muharraq was the wealthier of the two towns, it contained the houses and places of business of all
the important pearl merchants and was the centre of the pearl trade. In later years when there was a
slump in pearls the prosperity of Muharraq decreased. Though many of the leading merchants
still live in Muharraq they have moved their offices and places of business to Manamah and many
small traders who used to have shops in Muharraq have now transferred their shops to Manamah or
have entered into partnership with Manamah shopkeepers. Many of the big old fashioned houses and
the extensive godowns in Muharraq are now half empty and as a result the municipal tax collections
are small.
During the year the council reviewed and revised the scale of house taxes and reclassified the
buildings. A small increase was made on the house tax paid by wealthy householders in order to
reduce the tax paid by the genuinely poor and old debts, in arrears for many years, amounting to
Rs. 7,000, were written off as it was found that many of the debtors were dead or insolvent. The
number of stone houses in the town is 3,910 and of barasti houses 601 but 883 houses are exempt from
taxation and 664 houses are empty. The exemptions include houses belonging to the Ruling Family,
to destitute people and to religious leaders. There are 949 shops of which 437 are empty and in some
cases ruinous.
War conditions were responsible for certain items of expenditure in the budget which exceeded
the sums that were allocated. The cost of feeding between six and seven hundred destitute people
daily, cost almost twice as much as during the previous year and there was a big increase in pauper
burials which cost more because of the higher price of flat stones used for covering graves and of winding
sheets. Salaries of municipal employees and labourers were higher owing to war allowances and the
maintenance of artesian wells and public washing places increased because of the price of pipes and
fittings.