Water Distribution Management of Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman

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Water distribution management of Aflaj irrigation systems of Oman

THESIS · MARCH 2004

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Abdullah Al-Ghafri University of Nizwa

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STUDY ON WATER DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT OF AFLAJ IRRIGATION SYSTEMS OF OMAN

オマーン国アフラジ灌漑システムにおける水配分管理に関する研究

BY ABDULLAH AL-GHAFRI

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of

DOCTOR OF AGRICULTURE in ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES

Graduate School of Agriculture HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY Sapporo, Japan

March 2004 Table of Content 1 Introduction 1.1 Arid land Agriculture ...... 1 1.2 The Sultanate of Oman ...... 1 1.3 Falaj water allocation ...... 4 1.4 Aflaj of Oman...... 6 1.5 Objective ...... 8

2 Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman 2.1 Introduction ...... 10 2.2 Falaj water utilization ...... 11 2.3 Falaj administration...... 14 2.4 Types of aflaj ...... 17 I. Aini aflaj ...... 17 II. Ghaili aflaj...... 17 III. Daudi aflaj ...... 17 2.5 Origin and history ...... 25 2.6 Water quality ...... 29 2.7 Problems facing aflaj...... 29 2.8 Summary...... 34

3 Traditional Water Allocation of Aflaj 3.1 Introduction ...... 41 3.2 Methods ...... 41 I. Site selection...... 17 I. Data collection ...... 41 3.3 Falaj water allocation ...... 47 I. Falaj-water distribution by athar ...... 47 II. Other methods for falaj-water distribution...... 54 3.4 Irrigation scheduling ...... 59 I. Traditional time measurements in daytime...... 62 II. Traditional time measurements in nighttime ...... 67 III. Compression between meridian (Zawali) timing and sunset (Ghoroobi) timing ...... 74

i 3.5 Summary ...... 78

4 Equitability of Aflaj Traditional Water Distribution 4.1 Introduction ...... 82 4.2 Solution for the change of athars’ length ...... 82 4.3 Reaction of farmers on flow rate fluctuations ...... 85 I. Control the flow arte and the duration of dawran ...... 85 II. Reverse the order of irrigation...... 88 III. Storing irrigation water ...... 92 4.4 Case study of falaj al-Hageer ...... 94 I. Irrigation schedule ...... 97 II. Daytime irrigation timing...... 99 III. Nighttime irrigation timing ...... 104 IV. Solutions for the change of athars length...... 106 V. Solution for the flow rate fluctuations ...... 107 4.5 Summary...... 114

5 Irrigation Performance of Aflaj 5.1 Introduction ...... 116 5.2 Materials and methods ...... 122 I. Date palm...... 122 II. Irrigation Demand/Supply ratio (D/S)...... 125 III. Calculations...... 125 IV. Data collection...... 126 5.3 Results and discussion ...... 130 I. Water utilization...... 130 II. Water allocation...... 133 III. Area and crop water requirements (Etc) for date palm...... 140 IV. Rainfall...... 142 V. Flow rate calibration ...... 144 VI. Soil analysis ...... 149 VII. Irrigation demand/Supply ratio (D/S) for falaj ad-Dariz...... 151 VIII. Irrigation demand/Supply ratio (D/S) for falaj an-Nujaid ...... 151 5.4 Summary ...... 157

ii 6 Prospects for the Future of Aflaj 6.1 Introduction ...... 160 6.2 Modernization of irrigation schedule and timing in aflaj ...... 160 6.3 Suggestions on water management ...... 163 6.4 Pollution control ...... 167 6.5 Summary ...... 167

7 Conclusions 169

Acknowledgements 174

Bibliography 176

Appendix 188

Japanese summary 190

Glossary of Local Terms 192

iii List of Figures Figure 1.2.1 The location of the Sultanate of Oman ...... 3 Figure 1.4.1 Area where aflaj of Oman are concentrated ...... 7 Figure 2.2.1 Water utilization of aflaj of Oman ...... 12 Figure 2.2.2 The location of the awabi lands...... 13 Figure 2.3.1 Large falaj administration...... 16 Figure 2.4.1 Percentage of each type of aflaj from the total number (dead and live aflaj) .19 Figure 2.4.2 State of aflaj and the percentage of each type from the total number of dead aflaj……………………………………………………………………………………..….19 Figure 2.4.3 Sketch of aini falaj...... 20 Figure 2.4.4 Sketch of ghaili falaj...... 20 Figure 2.4.5 Source of ghaili falaj in a village in Wadi Bani Omar...... 21 Figure 2.4.6 Cross section of daudi falaj (qanat)...... 22 Figure 2.4.7 Service shafts of falaj al-Awabi...... 22 Figure 2.4.8 Top view of shafts, sub-tunnels and main tunnel of daudi falaj...... 23 Figure 2.4.9 Aflaj emergency tunnel ...... 23 Figure 2.4.10 Daudi aflaj with multiple mother wells...... 24 Figure 2.4.11 Tunnel opened for maintenance...... 24 Figure 2.5.1 Spread and distribution of qanats in the world...... 28 Figure 2.5.2 A Japanese qanat, Mambo (マンボ) in Mie-Ken ...... 28 Figure 2.7.1 Housing diffusion on aflaj lands...... 31 Figure 2.7.2 Careless maintenance of daudi-falaj shafts ...... 32 Figure 2.7.3 Two daudi-aflaj where water may seep from the upper stream falaj to the lower stream one ...... 33 Figure 3.2.1 Investigated villages...... 43 Figure 3.2.2 Investigated villages in Ad Dhahirah Region ...... 44 Figure 3.2.3 Investigated villages in Al-Batinah and Ad Dakhiliyah Regions...... 45 Figure 3.2.4 The location of al-Hageer, ad-Dariz and an-Nujaid...... 46 Figure 3.3.1 Traditional water-share units of falaj al-Awabi ...... 51 Figure 3.3.2 Traditional water share units of falaj al-Malki, Izki ...... 52 Figure 3.3.3 Water rights distribution of falaj al-Hageer, Wadi Bani Kharous...... 53 Figure 3.3.4 Water rights distribution of falaj Daris in Nizwa ...... 53 Figure 3.3.5 Tasa of falaj Saiq at Jabal al-Akhdar...... 56 Figure 3.3.6 The falaj Book of falaj Saiq at Jabal al-Akhdar ...... 56

iv Figure 3.3.7 Tank for water distribution in Wadi bani Kharous...... 57 Figure 3.3.8 Traditional water-share units of falaj al-Muhaydith, Ibri ...... 58 Figure 3.4.1 Traditional full day water-share divisions...... 61 Figure 3.4.2 Sundial (lamad) of falaj al-Kasfah, ar-Rustaq...... 63 Figure 3.4.3 Sketch of the sundial of falaj Stall...... 64 Figure 3.4.4 Sundial (lamad) of falaj Stall in Wadi Bani Kharous ...... 65 Figure 3.4.5 Sundial (lamad) of falaj ad-Dariz in Ibri ...... 66 Figure 3.4.6 Sunset (ghoroobi) timing for water-share divisions...... 76 Figure 3.4.7 Meridian (zawali) timing for water-share divisions...... 76 Figure 3.4.8 Different in “sundial and stars” (traditional) timing, ghoroobi timing and zawali timing in aflaj...... 77 Figure 4.2.1 Rotation of farmers order in falaj al-Hageer...... 84 Figure 4.3.1 Falaj flow division in falaj al-Hamra and falaj Birkat al-Mouz ...... 87 Figure 4.3.2 Irrigation method of falaj al-Farsakhi in Samail...... 91 Figure 4.3.3 Flow rate control in aflaj by storing water in tanks ...... 93 Figure 4.4.1 Photo of the village of al-Hageer...... 95 Figure 4.4.2 Map of falaj al-Hageer...... 96 Figure 4.4.3 The sundial location of falaj al-Hageer ...... 101 Figure 4.4.4 Sketch of the Sundial of falaj al-Hageer (top view, not to scale) ...... 102 Figure 4.4.5 The location of athar 10 in Lamad 2 ...... 103 Figure 4.4.6 The location of athar 6 in lamad 1 ...... 103 Figure 4.4.7 Full day divisions and the nighttime addition of falaj al-Hageer ...... 111 Figure 4.4.8 Athars’ addition schedule of falaj al-Hageer...... 111 Figure 4.4.9 Changing of farmers order in falaj al-Hageer ...... 112 Figure 4.4.10 The Principal tank of falaj al-Hageer...... 113 Figure 4.4.11 Water distribution system of falaj al-Hageer ...... 113 Figure 5.1.1 The location of ad-Dariz and an-Nujaid ...... 119 Figure 5.1.2 Map of falaj ad-Dariz ...... 120 Figure 5.1.3 Map of falaj an-Nujaid...... 121 Figure 5.2.1 Schematic picture of the date palm during a one-year production cycle .....124 Figure 5.2.2 The setting of the data logger in the tunnel of falaj ad-Dariz...... 128 Figure 5.2.3 The setting of the data logger in the tunnel of falaj an-Nujaid ...... 128 Figure 5.2.4 Setting points for flow rate measurements in the falaj canal...... 129 Figure 5.3.1 Water utilization of falaj ad-Dariz in high flow condition...... 131

v Figure 5.3.2 Water utilization of falaj an-Nujaid ...... 132 Figure 5.3.3 Traditional water-share units of falaj ad-Dariz ...... 135 Figure 5.3.4 Controlling the dawran length to adapt it for the flow rate fluctuations of falaj ad-Dariz (Sketch) ...... 136 Figure 5.3.5 Controlling the dawran length to adapt it for the flow rate fluctuations of falaj ad-Dariz (Photos) ...... 137 Figure 5.3.6 Water logging in falaj ad-Dariz (over irrigation)...... 138 Figure 5.3.7 Traditional water-share units of falaj an-Nujaid ...... 139 Figure 5.3.8 Flow rate calibration of falaj ad-Dariz...... 147 Figure 5.3.9 Hydrograph of falaj ad-Dariz...... 147 Figure 5.3.10 Flow rate calibration of falaj an-Nujaid...... 148 Figure 5.3.11 Hydrograph of falaj an-Nujaid...... 148 Figure 5.3.12 Monthly average irrigation demand and supply for falaj ad-Dariz ...... 153 Figure 5.3.13 Monthly D/S for falaj ad-Dariz...... 153 Figure 5.3.14 Monthly average irrigation demand and supply for falaj an-Nujaid ...... 156 Figure 5.3.15 Monthly D/S for falaj an-Nujaid...... 156 Figure 6.3.1 Replacing the falaj canal by PVC pipe...... 164 Figure 6.3.2 Storing water in tanks to improve water allocation ...... 165 Figure 6.3.3 Water ponds created during high flow period of falaj Ad Dariz. Fish are planted in the ponds...... 166

vi List of Tables Table 1.3.1 Percentage of self-sufficiency in food production in Oman...... 5 Table 2.5.1 Some names of qanats in different countries ...... 27 Table 3.3.1 Length of irrigation cycle (dawran) in some aflaj of Oman ...... 50 Table 3.4.1 Irrigation schedule of falaj al-Hageer...... 60 Table 3.4.2 The star set for irrigations timing in falaj al-Hamra...... 68 Table 3.4.3 The star set for irrigations timing in aflaj of Samail ...... 69 Table 3.4.4 The star set for irrigations timing in falaj al-Awabi ...... 70 Table 3.4.5 The star set for irrigations timing in falaj Stall ...... 71 Table 3.4.6 The star set for irrigations timing in falaj al-Hageer...... 72 Table 3.4.7 Variations of athars using same stars in different aflaj...... 73 Table 3.4.8 Methods of irrigations timing in some aflaj of Oman...... 75 Table 4.3.1 Irrigation schedule of falaj al-Farsakhi, Samail, 1st Dawran ...... 89 Table 4.3.2 Special divisions of time for irrigation in falaj al-Farsakhi, Samail ...... 90 Table 4.4.1 Irrigation Schedule of falaj al-Hageer...... 98 Table 4.4.2 Irrigation Star System of falaj al-Hageer ...... 105 Table 4.4.3 Al-Hageer farmers rotation, Saturday group...... 109 Table 4.4.4 Al-Hageer Farmers rotation, Thursday group ...... 110 Table 5.1.1 Aflaj of ad-Dariz...... 118 Table 5.3.1 The crop water requirements (ETc) for date palm in different regions of Oman (mm d-1) (After MAFW, 2003)...... 141 Table 5.3.2 Amount of rainfall during the observation period (May 2002-April 2003) in falaj ad-Dariz ...... 143 Table 5.3.3 Calibration of the data logger readings for falaj ad-Dariz ...... 146 Table 5.3.4 Calibration of the data logger readings for falaj an-Nujaid ...... 146 Table 5.3.5 Soil texture, bulk density and field capacity of falaj ad-Dariz...... 150 Table 5.3.6 Soil texture, bulk density and field capacity of falaj an-Nujaid...... 150 Table 5.3.7 Monthly D/S for falaj ad-Dariz ...... 152 Table 5.3.8 Monthly D/S for falaj an-Nujaid ...... 155 Table 6.2.1 Some traditional water share units and their equivalent time lengths...... 162

vii CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 Arid land agriculture Arid and semi arid lands comprise 40% of the world land area. These lands are inhabited with some 700 million people. 60 % of these lands are located in the developing countries (Singh et al, 1990). Arid lands are major producer of many agricultural products, for example dates. The arid lands, where Oman is located, are characterized by little rainfall, high temperature, and low humidity, making the evapotranspiration extremely high. In Oman, the daily evaporation rate may exceed 10 mm d-1 (MAFW, 2003). The soils of these lands are usually coarse with high sand percentage. Due to the extreme high temperatures and low humidity, low organic matter content, low soil-water retention and salinity, dry land soils have less productivity compared with those of semiarid and humid regions. The dilemma then is to supply more water for irrigation in environment with low availability of water. Hence water is most-limiting resource for agricultural production in dry lands, water management have to be very carefully done. Agricultural production totally depends on groundwater, as rainfall is rare and erratic in space and time in these areas. Without irrigation no agricultural production is possible. Improving the irrigation performance saves water, and thus enables to cultivate more lands.

1.2 The Sultanate of Oman The Sultanate of Oman is located in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, southwest of Asia, bordered by the straight of Hormuz in the North, Arabian Sea in the east, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in the west, and Yemen Republic in the south (Fig 1.2.1). Oman has an area of 309,500 km2. The population of Oman is 2.2 million with an annual growth rate of more than 3% (Ministry of Information, 1997, 1999). 82% of Oman area is dry lands classified as desert. Coastal land area occupies 3% of the total area of Oman with 1,700-km coastline and mountains range covers 15%. In northern Oman a huge mountain chain separates the costal land from the desert. These mountains are very important source of water for many traditional

1 farming. The highest mountain in Oman, part of the chain, has a height of 3003 m above sea level. In general assessment, Oman has hot and humid climate in summer in the coastal areas but hot and dry in the interior. Mean temperature in June is 31°-45° C. January mean temperature is 20°-25° C. Average rainfall is 100-200 mm year-1 except for the south region where monsoon brings intensive rainfall between June and September in small area of Dhofar Mountains (600-700 mm y-1) (Ministry of Information, 1999). The rainfall paten in Oman is erratic.

2 Fig. 1.2.1 The location of the Sultanate of Oman

3 1.3 Agriculture of Oman Agriculture is a major income to Oman after oil. There are 101,000 ha are cultivated in Oman, making the sultanate a leading agricultural country in the Arabian Peninsula especially in the livestock production. The latest figures in self-sufficiency in food production indicate that the sultanate is adequately self-sufficient in fruit, animal fodder and vegetables (Ministry of Information, 1999) (Table 1.3.1). The major crops of Oman are: date palm, lime trees, coconut, banana, mango, wheat, alfalfa, rhode grass and various types of vegetables.

Table 1.3.1 Percentage of self-sufficiency in food production in Oman (modified after Ministry of Information, 1999).

Product Percentage

1 Fruit 93% 2 Animal fodder 75% 3 Vegetables 64% 4 Dairy products 53% 5 Beef 46% 6 Egg 45% 7 Tuber crops 35% 8 Mutton 23% 9 Poultry 13% 10 Rice 0%

5 1.4 Aflaj of Oman plural of) أﻓﻼج Early civilization exists in Oman around 5000 years ago. Aflaj that were the “blood” for Omani civilization along history, are going to ,(ﻓﻠﺞ falaj vanish if nothing done to adapt them for the new changes in Oman. Aflaj first constructed in the Iron Age culture of Oman, perhaps in the eighth century B.C. (Wilkinson, 1977, 1987). Aflaj are a kind of farmers managed participatory irrigation systems where the local community controls the decisions in water management. During the literature review, the author found that the original pronunciations of local aflaj terms are lost when it written in other languages. The case is worse when someone rewrite these terms from non-Arabic text. Whatever caution to be done to eliminate this problem, rewritten words in other languages never pronounced as their in Japanese (ﻓﻠﺞ) ”original form. For example, if someone rewrites the term “falaj katakana it sounds like “falaji or faraji”. Therefore the author intentionally wrote the local terms in Arabic when it first appears in the text. A glossary of these terms is attached in the end of the theses. Oman is divided to eight administrative regions; Musandam, Al Batinah, Muscat, Ad Dhahirah, Ad Dhakhikiyah, Ash Sharqiyah, Al Wusta and Dhofar According to the Ministry of . (ﻣﺴﻨﺪم, اﻝﺒﺎﻃﻨﺔ, ﻣﺴﻘﻂ, اﻝﻈﺎهﺮﻩ, اﻝﺪاﺧﻠﻴﺔ, اﻝﺸﺮﻗﻴﺔ, اﻝﻮﺱﻄﻰ و ﻇﻔﺎر) Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources MRMEWR (2001), aflaj are exist only in the northern part of Oman (Musandam (Madha), Al Batinah, Muscat, Ad Dhahirah, Ad Dhakhikiyah and Ash Sharqiyah). Fig. 1.4.1 shows the administrative region of Oman and the area where aflaj are concentrated. According to MRMEWR (2001), A total of 2,900 km of tunnels and canals of aflaj are irrigating some 17,600 ha cropped area. Beside that, 9,700 ha are not cropped but have the potential to be cultivated. 68 % of the demand areas of each falaj are less than 2 ha. The other source of water for remaining agricultural area is tube wells, which supply the majority of water for irrigation.

6 Musandam

Musandam (Madha)

Al-Batinah

Muscat

Ad-Dhahirah

Ad-Dakhiliyah Ash-Sharqiyah

Al-Wusta

Dhofar

Disclaimer: This is an approximated map and not an authority of any kind except of its purpose in the theses.

Fig. 1.4.1 Area where aflaj are concentrated in Oman.

7 1.5 Objective We cannot manage what we cannot understand, and we cannot understand what we do not measure. We need to look to aflaj systems from several aspects, including hydro-physical and socio-economical aspects. The theses goal is to bring more understanding of the traditional practices of irrigation in aflaj of Oman. As well, to evaluate the recent water distribution in aflaj; to highlights its problems and set recommendations for adapting aflaj to the future. With several case studies and examples, the theses tried to make concrete scope for aflaj systems with deep understanding of traditional water allocation in aflaj. The theses will also discuses modernization of the existing practice of water allocation. Some problems facing aflaj will be addressed. The study will examine an approach for estimating the irrigation performance in aflaj by considering the falaj as a single unit of irrigation. Chapter two reviewed the origin, history, and administrative aspect of aflaj while chapter three and four discussed the traditional water allocation and irrigation timing. Chapter five evaluated the irrigation performance in aflaj. Before summarizing the theses, chapter six will highlight some prospects of the future of aflaj. The research included the following specific objectives: • Make analytical study on the traditional ways of water allocation in aflaj of Oman. This include water allocation equitability and reaction of farmers on flow rate fluctuations. • Compare the use of the traditional sundial and stars system with using modern watch in timing irrigation, to understand the mechanism of farmer’s attitude on modernization. • Assess the irrigation performance of aflaj from field studies.

8 References: Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth (MAFW), 2003*. Index Guide for Crop (اﻝﺪﻝﻴﻞ اﻻرﺵﺎدي ﻝﺘﻘﺪیﺮ اﻹﺣﺘﻴﺎﺟﺎت اﻝﻤﺎﺋﻴﺔ Water Requirements in the Sultanate of Oman prepared by: Alnadi, Abdelmohsin Hasan. * The index is published ,ﻓﻲ اﻝﺴﻠﻄﻨﺔ) in 2003, however it is not written in its cover. Ministry of Information, 1997. Oman 1997, Muscat, Oman. Ministry of Information, 1999. Oman 1998/1999, Muscat, Oman. Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources, 2001. Aflaj Inventory Project Summary Report, The Sultanate of Oman. Parr, J.F.; Stewart, B.A.; Hornick, S.B. and Singh, R.P, 1990. Improving the Sustainability of Dry land Farming Systems: A Global Perspectives, Advance in Soil Science, V. 13, Dry land Agriculture Strategies for Sustainability, ed. Singh, R.P, Parr, J.F. and Stewart, B.A. Wilkinson, J.C., 1977. Water and Tribal Settlement in Southeast Arabia: a Study of the Aflaj of Oman, Oxford, Clarendon Press. Wilkinson, J.C., 1987. The Imamate Tradition of Oman, Cambridge Middle East Library, Cambridge University Press.

9 CHAPTER 2 Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman 2.1 Introduction Agriculture production of Oman is almost fully dependent on irrigation, because most crop producing areas receive only between 100 to 200 mm of rainfall annually (Norman, et al, 1998 a, b). Most of the supplied water in Oman comes from groundwater by wells or aflaj systems. However, in big cities such as Muscat, desalination plants supply some portion of demanded water for urban use. Oman has producing water about 680 x 106 m3 (اﻓﻼج)falaj in which 3,108 are live aflaj 4,112 year-1 in which 410 x 106 m3 year-1 are used. These aflaj are irrigating some 26,500 hectares (Al-Hatmi and Al-Amri, 2000). singular of aflaj), as a canal system, which) (ﻓﻠﺞ) ”We can define the “falaj supply water for a community of farmers for domestic and/or agricultural use. A farming community owns all falaj water. Each farmer has his own share of water depending on the size of his owned farming land(s) and his contribution in constructing the falaj. Aflaj vary in size; the smaller ones owned by a single family to the larger ones having hundreds of owners. Many villages and towns in Oman have more than one falaj system. The term “falaj” is derived from an ancient Semitic root, which has the meaning “to divide”, hence the water shares in aflaj is divided between the owners (Wilkinson, 1977). In many Arabic-Arabic dictionaries e.g. Al-Waseet (1990) and Lisan Al-Arab (1997), the term falaj and its derivatives have meaning related to water, land improvement or dividing something (Al-Ghafri et al, 2003b). The local nomenclature of the falaj implies the system as a whole (Wushiki, 1997). The name falaj is not designated only for “qanat” irrigation system in Oman; this name is also ﻓﻠﺞ and “wadi base flow” type (ghaili falaj (ﻓﻠﺞ ﻋﻴﻨﻲ used for spring type (aini falaj also (ﻓﻠﺞ داؤودي,) ,”The qanat irrigation system in Oman is called “daudi falaj .(ﻏﻴﻠﻲ .(ﻓﻠﺞ ﻋﺪّي) known as Iddi falaj Reviewing many references about aflaj, it is believed that all of these systems are located in the northern part of Oman. However, Lightfoot (2000) reported that qanats spread from northern Oman to the southern part (Dhofar) as early as the first century A.D.

10 2.2 Falaj water utilization The aflaj systems are arranged in such a way that domestic use is primary and agricultural use is secondary. From the total demand for aflaj water, 99.8 % goes to agricultural use (MRMEWR, 2001). In most aflaj, water is first allocated for drinking, then water will pass through mosques, forts, men's public baths, women's public baths, and then to the areas for washing dishes and clothes respectively. After domestic use, falaj water is utilized first to irrigate the permanent cultivated lands, .Fig) (ﻋﻮاﺑﻲ) mostly date palms, and then the seasonal cultivated lands, called awabi 2.2.1). This arrangement helps farmers to control drought. If falaj has more flow rate, then more lands will be cultivated with seasonal crops, such as wheat, tomato and onion in down stream of the system (Fig. 2.2.2). However, if drought occurs farmers cut the area of seasonal crops (Wilkinson J.C., 1977, Birks and Letts, 1977, Dutton, 1995, and Norman et. al., 1998 a, b, 1999). If available water in falaj exceeds farmer’s need, water is drained out of the system. Type of domestic use differs among aflaj depending on the level of modernization that reaches the village. As an example, in some villages where people get public water and have modern houses, falaj water is used only for agriculture. Besides the agricultural and domestic use, aflaj systems used for industrial and other purposes. As an example, falaj al-Mutaridh, died falaj near Sohar, northeast of Oman had four water mills (for grinding grains) constructed along its channel. This falaj channel system also used as a route way. Numbers of cisterns were constructed in the upper-stream of this falaj to store water for travelers (Costa & Wilkinson, T. J. 1987, Wilkinson, T.J. 1977).

Water source

Drinking

Mosques and forts

Men bath Domestic

Women bath

Washing

Date palms and trees

Agricultural Seasonal crops

Drain

Fig. 2.2.1 Water utilization of aflaj of Oman.

12 Seasonal awabi Permanent trees (date palm) (wheat, alfalfa, etc) Perennial awabi

Fig. 2.2.2 The location of the awabi lands. Note that the perennial awabi is located in the tail of the system, the permanent crop in the head and the seasonal awabi between the tail and the head (Photo: falaj al-Hageer, April 1997).

13 2.3 Falaj administration two (وآﻴﻞ),Typical large Omani falaj administration consists of a director, wakil one for underground-section services and the other for above (ﻋﺮیﻒ),assistants, arifs and (اﻣﻴﻦ اﻝﺪﻓﺘﺮ),or amin aldaftar (ﻗﺎﺑﺾ),ground-section services, banker, qabidh .(Sutton, 1984, Wilkinson J.C, 1977) (Fig. 2.3.1) (ﺑﻴﺎدیﺮ),labor, bayadir Depending on the size of the falaj system, falaj can have all of the above administration or some but at the very least should have a wakil. The owners of the falaj (land and water owners) chose the wakil from the village citizens. The wakil should be someone with a respected personality, honest, can read and write and can perform simple calculations. He should also have an outgoing personality that allowed him to communicate well with all people of the village. The is assigning the wakil to his job after a (ﺷﻴﺦ) head of the village, sheikh recommendation from the falaj-owners. The wakil is in charge of the overall administration of the falaj. He is the executing director of the falaj. For example, he is in charge of water distribution, water rent, expenditure of falaj budget, solving water conflicts between farmers, emergencies and other decision-making activities. In case of conflicts, either the wakil or the owners can complain to the sheikh. If the sheikh could not solve the problem, they or the sheikh him self, will raise the who is the government representative and in a (واﻝﻲ) matter to the governor, wali position, in final way, to transfer the matter to the court to be judged by the qadhi using Islamic law. Sometimes the wakil or the owners call for an audit (ﻗﺎﺿﻲ) committee to check the income and outcome of the falaj cash flow. This committee consists usually of 3 to 4 trustees from the village (Al-Ghafri, 2002). The arifs are foremen of the falaj. They follow wakil’s directions and lead the can be in charge of timing irrigation in the field. The (ﻋﺮیﻒ) labor, bayadir. Arif qabidh’s job is controlling the falaj income, which comes from waqf (special water shares, land, and/or crops located for the falaj). He is also in charge of updating the falaj transaction book, giving an annual report to the falaj owners, and following the wakil’s directions. In every falaj, there are some water shares not owned by individuals but allocated for the community. The value of these shares reserved for falaj service, mosques and emergencies. In Omani aflaj, particularly the larger ones, farmers can be classified in 4 types: i) owners of land and water;

14 ii) owners of land and renting water; iii) owners of water and renting land; iv) renting land and water. The existence of each type depends on many factors such as the sizes of the falaj community and the amount of water share that is owned by the government (bait Waqf can be also .(وﻗﻒ ,or located for the community benefits, (waqf (ﺑﻴﺖ اﻝﻤﺎل al-mal in form of land or crops reserved for the community. Some portion of the aflaj water is rented periodically in one or both of two like 7-14 days and/or every one-year (ﻣﻘﻌﻮدة) ways, in short intervals called Maqouda .controls these events (دﻻّل),Auctioneer, dallal . (ﻣﺰیﻮدة) called Mazyodah

Wali (Governor) Qadhi (Judge) Sheikh (Village or tribe head)

Audit Committee

Falaj Owners

Wakil al-Falaj (Executive manager)

Underground Section Arif Dallal Amin al-Dafter, Qabidh Aboveground Section Arif

(Foremen) (Auctioneer) (Banker) (Foremen)

Clerk Bayadir Bayadir

(Workforce) (Workforce)

Fig. 2.3.1 Large falaj administration (After Al-Saleemi and Abdel Fattah, 1997).

16 2.4 Types of aflaj Aflaj in Oman can be classified into three types depending on its source of water; ghaili, daudi, and aini (Fig. 2.4.1). However the methods of administration and management are very similar. From the total of 4,112 aflaj, 1,004 falaj are dried up (dead), due to many hydrological and social problems. Fig 2.4.2 shows the percentage of each type of aflaj from the total number of dead aflaj.

I. Aini aflaj: The aini aflaj represent (ﻋﻴﻦ.) In the aini aflaj the source is a natural spring, ain 28% of the total number of aflaj. Examples of these aflaj are falaj Ain al-Kasfah in ar-Rustaq in the al-Al-Batinah Region, and falaj Bowsher in the capital area. The water is transported from the spring to the village by canals for domestic and agricultural use (Fig. 2.4.3).

II. Ghaili aflaj: The closer irrigation type in other countries to ghaili aflaj is the Spate Irrigation. Ghaili aflaj represent 49% of the total aflaj in Oman. The water of these aflaj comes from base flow of upper stream of wadi (dried valley) (Fig. 2.4.4). Al- Hatmi and Al-Amri (2000) stated that the canal has length of 200-2,000 m. Fig. 2.4.5 shows the source of one ghaili aflaj in northern Oman. According to Al-Shaybani, 2003, comparable systems also found in many parts of the world. He wrote that this type of irrigation system could be originated in Yemen around 3,000 BC then spread to the Arabia, Asia, North Africa and finally to Latin America.

III. Daudi aflaj: represent 23% of the total aflaj in (أﻓﻼج ﻋﺪیّﺔ Daudi aflaj (also called iddy aflaj Oman (MRMWR, 2001). The source of water is a mother-well dug deep in wadi bottom. Compared with other types of aflaj, daudi aflaj have the most stable flow rate around the year, Al-Hatmi and Al-Amri (2000) explained that the regular tunnel has 0.5-1.0 m width, 0.5-2.0 m height and up to 12 km in length. For example falaj, Daris in Nizwa has 2.75 km length of tunnel and falaj al-Malki in Izki has 9 km in length (Al-Balushi, 1995). The longest tunnel is of falaj Ash Shariq which is 17.2 km in length (MRMEWR, 2001). In these aflaj water is driven from deep water table by

17 long underground tunnel followed by a canal system (Fig. 2.4.6). The slope of the tunnel is carefully chosen so that the water will flow in calm speed. The gradient must be less than that of the gradient of the ground water table, or the ground surface. This is to reduce damage of the tunnel by water erosion (Birks, 1984). This type of aflaj is most difficult to construct which require lot of money, time and workforce. In Iran, where similar systems constructed in the end of the last century, Bonine (1996) reported that it cost about 80,000 US$ to dig a small qanat system with length of 2 km and mother well depth of 16 m. From data of depth of water table that are presented by the university of Durham (1978), it can be anticipated that, in northern Oman, the depth to the water surface at the mother well is less than 20 m. The tunnel or canal of the falaj can be as long as 17 of kilometers in Oman and to tens of kilometers in Iran. Because the tunnels are so long, local people opened for air (ﻓﺮﺿﺔ or fordhah ﺛﻘﺒﺔ access shafts (access shaft locally called thuqbah circulation and services along the tunnels (Fig. 2.4.7). These shafts are spaced about 20 meters. In some daudi aflaj, the shafts are located 3 meters away from the main tunnel and connected to it by sub tunnels (Fig. 2.4.8). This is to insure more security to the falaj. Also, another sub tunnels are dug in parallel to the main ones, for emergency (Fig. 2.4.9). If main tunnel get damaged, water will be diverted to emergency tunnel until it gets repaired. Large aflaj can have more than one mother-well. Each mother-well is connected .(ﺳﺎﻋﺪ اﻝﻔﻠﺞ) ,to the main stream of flow by tunnel, called falaj tributary, sa’uid al falaj For example, falaj Daris at Nizwa has 3 tributaries and falaj al-Malki in Izki has 17 (Fig. 2.4.10). These days the government of Oman, represented by MRMEWR (the Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water resources), does the emergency and maintenance service for aflaj, such as lining the tunnel with concrete (Fig. 2.4.11).

Aini Daudi 28.0% 23.0%

Ghaili 49.0%

Fig. 2.4.1 Percentage of each type of aflaj from the total number (dead and live aflaj).

Daudi 31.0% Aini 15.0% Live Dead 75.6% 24.4%

Ghaili 54.0%

Fig. 2.4.2 State of aflaj and the percentage of each type from the total number of dead aflaj.

Water conveyance Water utilization

Water source Domestic Agricultural (ﻋﻴﻦ Spring)

Fig. 2.4.3 Sketch of aini falaj.

Water conveyance Water utilization

Domestic Agricultural

Dam or wall

Water source Ghail (Wadi base flow) ﻏﻴﻞ Wadi

Fig. 2.4.4 Sketch of ghaili falaj.

20 Fig. 2.4.5 Upper photo: Water source of ghaili falaj in a village in Wadi Bani Omar (Photo: March 2003). .(Photo: November 2001) ( اﻝﻤﺤﻴﻮل) Lower Photo: Water source of falaj Al-Mahyul

Water Utilization Water Conveyance Water Production

Mountain Mother Wells

Service Shafts

Village Area

Land surface Open Canals Section Tunnel Water Table

Water Aquifer

Impermeable formation

Fig. 2.4.6 Cross section of daudi falaj (qanat).

Fig. 2.4.7 Service shafts of falaj al-Awabi (Photo: Wadi Bani Kharous, May 2002).

Main tunnel

Shafts Service sub-tunnels

Fig. 2.4.8 Top view of shafts, sub-tunnels and main tunnel of daudi falaj.

Main tunnel Shafts

Emergency tunnels

Fig. 2.4.9 Aflaj emergency tunnel.

Mother well

Tothevillage Mother wel l

Mother wel l

Falaj tributaries

Fig. 2.4.10 Daudi aflaj with multiple mother wells.

Tunnel under maintenance Shaft

Fig. 2.4.11 Tunnel opened for maintenance (Photo: Falaj Ad Dariz, Ibri, August 1999).

24 2.5 Origin and history

Unfortunately, farmers and owners of Omani aflaj do not know the exact date when these aflaj constructed in Oman. The mythology, which is very spread among ( ﺳﻠﻴﻤﺎن ﺑﻦ local people, states that the daudi aflaj created by King Suliaman bin Daud King Solomon of the Old Testament) when he rest in Oman from a trip to) داؤود) Yemen. He stayed in Oman 10 days, so he ordered Jinn (Arabian demon) to dig 1000 qanats every day. This explains why the qanat-type aflaj called “daudi” aflaj. Daudi Aflaj technology was adapted to Oman for 1,500 to 2,000 of years ago (Sutton, 1984). Wilkinson, J. C. (1977, 1980, 1983 and 1987) argued that the aflaj of Oman were all constructed during the Persian occupation to Oman in the Achaemanide (550-331 B.C.) and Sasanide eras in started in the eighteenth century until the fifteenth century A.D. However, Al-Abri (undated), mentioned that many aflaj had constructed in the Yaruba era (A.D. 1624-1740). He gave an example of four aflaj that had been created during the ruling of Imam Sultan bin Saif (dead in 1711 A.D.), in the mid of seventeenth century; Falaj al-Bazeel in Dhank, Falaj Suq al-Imam in al-Kamil and al-Wafi, Falaj al-Kamil in Rustaq and falaj Burzman in south of Sharqiyah region. The exact origin and date of the qanat innovation is not proved yet. Lightfoot (2000b), explained that even modern methods of dating, such as by radio-carbon (14C) may lead to wrong results in estimating the age of qanats. Beekman, (1999) consider Armenia as the origin of qanat. Other theory suggests that qanat first appeared 2,500 years ago in the mountains of Kurdistan (English, 1997). Persian Scholars such as Honari (1989) argued the origin of qanat to be in Iran, however Arabic Scholars like Zorqah (1999) counters that and argued the origin to be the Arabian Peninsula. Qanat system started about 700 B.C. in Iran (Okazaki, 1989, Lambton, 1989, Lightfoot, 2000a) or more than 3,000 years ago (Szollosi-Nagy, 1998). Honari (1989) goes beyond that figure; he estimated that qanat innovated in Iran before 5,000 to 7,000 years ago. Comparable systems to daudi aflaj existed or still exist in many places around the world like Iran, China, Iraq, Countries of the Arabian Gulf, Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Cyprus, North Africa, Spain, and the Americas (Cressey, 1958); Afghanistan, Sahara, Japan, China, and Morocco (Sekai no Kangai to Haisui, (1995) and Kobori, (1996)). Cressey quoted some two dozens of variants of names and spellings of these systems:

25 qanat, quanat, canant, connought, kanat, khanate, khad, kanayet, or ghannat; karez, kariz, kahriz, kahrez, karaz, or kakoriz (southwest Asia); foggara, mayon, iffeli, ngoula, khettara, khottara, or rhettara (North Africa); falaj, or felledj (Arabia). In the book, Sekai no Kangai to Haisui (1995), it is mentioned that it is called Qanat in Iran and Iraq, Karez in Afghanistan, Fogara in Sahara, Rettara in Morocco, Kanjing in China, and Mambo in Japan. Perhaps, most of these different name are just variants of the original names used for qanat systems; Qanat, Aflaj, Karez, Khattara and Foggara. Karez is a Persian alternative of the Semitic words, qanat, aflaj, foggarah and khattarah. Evenari et al, (1982), reported renovation of qanat in the Negev desert, in Palestine. In their textbook, “The Negev: the challenge of a Desert”, the “chain of wells” is used as “qanat”. They suggested that the word “qanat” is the origin of similar words in modern languages. Qanat means “shaft” from the Semitic root Kaneh. In Greek and Roman word canna, the English canal, channel, and cane, the German Kanal, the French canal. Table 2.5.1 shows some of names and locations of qanats in the world and Fig. 2.5.1 shows the spread and distribution of qanats in the world. More than 23 Mambo systems existed in Japan by the 1930s. The underground structure of Mambo (マンボ) systems is similar to qanat system (Fig. 2.5.1); however, it was used to irrigate paddy field (Kayane, 1973). From field study done by the author in Mie-Ken, Japan, the Japanese qanat found to be very similar in physical structure to the Omani daudi aflaj. The local people there call it “mappo” (マッポ).

26 Table 2.5.1 Some names of qanats in different countries.

Name in Original Country Name Language آﺎریﺰ Afghanistan Kariz ﻓﺠﺎرة Algeria, Libya Foggara آﺎریﺰ ,China (Xinjiang Uyghur) Kanerjing, Kanjing, Karez 坎儿井, 坎井 ﻗﻨﺎة ran Qanat Italy (Sicilian) Ingruttato (s.), Ingruttati (pl.) Japan Mambo, Mappo マンボ, マッポ Korea Ma-nan-po Latin America Galerias, Puquio ﻗﻄّﺎرة Morocco Khattara, Rhettara ﻓﻠﺞ, أﻓﻼج (Oman Falaj (s.), Aflaj (pl Spain and Canary Islands Galerias, Mayrit ﻗﻨﺎة روﻣﺎﻥﻲ Syria Qanat Romani ﻓﻠﺪج, ﻏﻴﻞ, ﻣﻴّﺎن Yemen Felledj, Ghail, Miyan

Fig. 2.5.1 Spread and distribution of qanats in the world.

三重県鈴鹿地方

Shafts

Fig. 2.5.2 A Japanese qanat, Mambo (マンボ) in Mie-Ken (Photo: July

28 2.6 Water quality In general, the water quality of aflaj in Oman is good for agriculture and it is potable. From the 3,108 live aflaj, by electrical conductivity test, 2,762 aflaj found to be suitable for cultivations of all crops, 159 aflaj suitable for most crops and 37 of aflaj are unsuitable for some crops. The electrical conductivity ranges between 115 and 16,700 µЅ cm-1. By pH tests, 2,708 aflaj found to be suitable for cultivations of all crops (pH between 6 and 9.5), 142 aflaj had high alkaline (pH greater than 10.5), and 5 aflaj have acidic water (pH less than 6). The pH number ranges between 4.6 and 12.9 (MRMEWR, 2001).

2.7 Problems facing Aflaj There are more than 24% of Omani aflaj are classified as dead (MRMEWR, 2001). These systems dried due to several factors, not only by hydro-physical reasons but also by socio-economical problems. Aflaj, which sustained for hundreds of years providing food and income to farmers, faced lot of serious problems in the last four decades in Oman. Due to the rapid modernization, farmers changed to other jobs of higher income such as in oil companies and governmental organizations. Aflaj become less and less important as a economical source for farmers. Regular maintenance becomes less practiced. The migration of farmers to work out of the community led less manpower to take care of the falaj regular maintenance. Due to the scarcity of labor, farmers hired non- experienced expatriates labor to work in aflaj systems. These expatriate do not have the knowledge neither the sense of the importance of aflaj to maintain the regular service of the system. Government of Oman, particularly MAFW (the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth) and MRMEWR, did intensive efforts to maintain the aflaj systems. As an example, a special department in MRMEWR is allocated to maintain aflaj. This department did a lot of surveys and researches for developing and maintains the aflaj systems. A big budget is allocated for aflaj maintenance. Al- Hatmi and Al-Amri (2000) estimated the cost for the maintenance of aflaj channels as 83 to 163 US$ per meter for the underground tunnels and 35 to 99 US$ per meter for the above ground structures (over the period 1991-1999). Due to the passive attitude of farmers toward the falaj, technical knowledge about aflaj remained only with older generation, and new generations have no interest

29 to learn it. In many systems farmers even do not know the time of the construction or the location of the water source (Wushiki, 1997). Starting from the 1950’s, farmers whose get better incomes from working out of the aflaj communities departed from the community and established their own farms. These new farms irrigated by diesel or electric pumps. The large number of new farms affected the water table which feeding the aflaj. Much aflaj flow was reduced and it dried out in some cases. Oman government made lot of efforts and regulations to stop or reduce the effect of this problem on aflaj. For example, by implementing new regulations to control the digging of new wells. Urbanization is one of the threatening problems to aflaj. Farming lands are shrinking in favor of expansion on residential areas. In many aflaj systems, agricultural lands (which has lower price than residential or industrial) are converted to housing land. Many farms have been reduced or abounded (Fig. 2.7.1).

The terminology and nomenclature for scheduling irrigation and units for water share is too complicated and unorganized, as well its knowledge is disappearing. This fact, beside the ridge fixed irrigation cycle, make the modernization of water management very difficult. Another potential hazard to aflaj is chemical and physical pollutions. Some aflaj shafts are left open (Fig. 2.7.2) which leads to the intrusion of debris and pollutants in the water stream. Besides that, it is dangerous for human and animals. The country is moving fast toward heavy industry, tourism and economical activities. The combination of these activities with other social problems can harm the fragile ecosystem of aflaj. As these systems located in an extreme environment, characterized by high temperature, low rainfall and low humidity resulting in an easy accumulation of toxic materials and pollutants. In many cases in Oman, the source of one falaj is located just downstream of another. Thus, applying agro-chemicals in the upper stream may lead to polluting the lower falaj (Fig. 2.7.3). Biological pollution from residential areas is also expected. The sewage water from houses is stored in underground tanks; this water may seep into the falaj tunnel or canal.

30 Fig. 2.7.1 Housing diffusion on aflaj lands (Photo: Birkat al-Mouz, November 2000).

31 Fig. 2.7.2 Careless maintenance of daudi-falaj shafts (Photo: Falaj Daris, Nizwa, April 2003).

32 Upper falaj

Lower falaj

Alluvial deposits Ground Water table

Bedrock

Fig. 2.7.3 Two daudi-aflaj where water may seep from the upper stream falaj to the lower stream one.

33 2.8 Summary Oman receives small amount of rainfall per year making agricultural production almost fully dependant on irrigation. Aflaj systems have been utilized in Oman for hundreds of years. Oman has 4,112 falaj in which 3,108 are live aflaj. We can define the falaj (singular of aflaj), as a canal system, which supplies water for a community of farmers for domestic and/or agricultural use. Because the flow rate of aflaj is varied around the year, aflaj systems are arranged in such a way that makes it easier for farmers to control drought. After domestic use, falaj is used first to irrigate the permanent cultivated lands, mostly date palms, and then the seasonal cultivated lands, called awabi. Aflaj systems are also used for industrial and other purposes, such as to drive water mills. Aflaj in Oman can be classified into three types depending on its source of water; ghaili, daudi, and aini. However the methods of administration and management are very similar. Only daudi type is similar to the qanat irrigation system of Iran. Comparable systems of irrigation to daudi aflaj have been or still exist in many places around the world, like Central and Eastern Asia, Middle East, South Europe, North Africa and the Americas, however it is called by different names. Aflaj vary in size; from smaller ones owned by a single family to larger ones having hundreds of owners. Typical Omani falaj administration consists of a director, wakil, two assistants, arifs, one for underground services and the other for above ground services, banker, qabidh, or amin aldaftar, and labor, bayadir. The Wakil is in charge of the overall administration of the falaj. Depending on the size of the falaj system, falaj can have that entire staff or some but at the very least should have a wakil. In general, the water quality of aflaj is good, however there is potential to be polluted from urban and industrial activities. More than one quarter of the aflaj have fallen out of use due to many social and technical problems. The government of Oman is making many efforts to conserve and maintain the aflaj.

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36 Costa, P.M., Wilkinson, T.J., 1987. The Water Supply of Early Islamic Sohar, The Journal of Oman Studies, Vol.9, Chapter 4., pp. 42-80, Ministry of National Heritage and Culture, Sultanate of Oman. Cressey, George B., 1958. Qanat, Karez and Foggaras, Geographical Review, 48, 27-44. Durham, University of, 1978. Research & Development Surveys in Northern Oman, Final Report, Vol. II Water, England. Dutton, Roderic W., 1995. Towards a Secure Future for the Aflaj in Oman. Proceedings of Sultanate of Oman International Conference on Water Resource Management in Arid Countries, pp. 16-24, Ministry of Water Resources, Oman. Evenari, Micheal; Shanan Leslie and Tadmor, Naphtali, 1982. The Negev: the challenge of a Desert, 2nd Ed., Harvard College, USA. Honari, Morteza, 1989. Qanats and Human Ecosystems in Iran, in, Beaumont, P., Bonine, M., and McLachlan, K., Qanat, Kariz and Khattara: Traditional Water Systems in Middle East and North Africa, The Middle East Center, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK. Kayane Isamu, 1973. Chikasuishigen no Kaihatsu to Hozen (in Japanese), Suirikagaku Kankujo Foundation, Japan. Kobori, I, 1996. Kansou Chiiki no Suiiri Taikei: Qanat no Keisei to Tenkai, Institute of Social Science, Meiji University, Daimei Dou Publisher, Japan Lambton, A.K.S., 1989. The Qanats of Qum, in, Beaumont, P., Bonine, M., and McLachlan, K., Qanat, Kariz and Khattara: Traditional Water Systems in Middle East and North Africa, The Middle East Center, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK Lightfoot, Dale R., 1996a. Morroccan Khattara: Traditional Irrigation and progressive Desiccation, Geoforum, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 261-273. Lightfoot, Dale R., 1996b. Syrian qanat Romani, History, Ecology, Abandonment, Journal of Arid Environment, 33, pp. 321-336. Lightfoot, Dale R., 1997. Qanat in the Levant: Hydraulic Technology at the Periphery of Early Empires, Research Note, The Society for the Histrory of Technology. Lightfoot, Dale R., 2000a. The Origin and Diffusion of Qanats in Arabia: New Evidence from the northern and southern Peninsula, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 166, No. 3, September 2000, pp. 215-226.

37 Lightfoot, Dale R., 2000b. Ghayl and Miyan in Arabia Felix: The Ecology of Diffusion and Recession of Use, The Arab World Geographer/Le Geographe du monde arabe, Vol. 3, No. 1 pp. 2-21. .edition, 1997, Dar Sadir, Beirut, Lebanon, pp. 346 (ﻝﺴﺎن اﻝﻌﺮب) Lisan al-Arab, th6 Mabry, Jonathan B., 1996. Canals and Communities: Small-Scale Irrigation Systems, Arizona Studies in Human Ecology. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources (MRMEWR), 2001. Aflaj Inventory Project Summary Report, Muscat, Oman. Ministry of Water Resources, Oman, 1995. Aflaj in the Sultanate of Oman. Norman, W. Ray; Shayya, Walid H.; Al-Ghafri, Abdullah and McCann, I., 1997 a. Aflaj Irrigation Water Management and Efficiencies: A Case Study From Northern Oman, Third Gulf Water Conference, Water Science and Technology Association, 8-13 March. Norman, W. Ray; Shayya, Walid. H.; Al-Ghafri, Abdullah and McCann, I.R., 1997 b. Cost for Pumped Irrigation Water and Related Farm Water Use in Oman. Soil and Crop Management under Modern Irrigation Systems in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions, Ministry of Agriculture and Fishers Wealth, Rumais, Oman, May 3-6. Norman, W. Ray; Shayya, Walid H.; Al-Ghafri, Abdullah, 1998a. Irrigation Water Costs and Management Practices Among Farms in Northern Oman, Journal of Scientific Research, Agricultural Sciences, Vol.3, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, pp 1-8. Norman, W. Ray; Shayya, Walid H.; Al-Ghafri, Abdullah and McCann, I.R., 1998b. Aflaj Irrigation and On-farm Water Management in Northern Oman, Irrigation and Drainage Systems 12, pp 35-38. Norman, W. Ray.; Al-Ghafri, Abdullah; and Shayya, Walid. H., 2001. Water Use Performance and Comparative Costs Among Surface and Traditional Irrigation Systems in Northern Oman, in Water in the Arabian Peninsula: Problems and Policies. K. Mahdi (Ed). Ithaca Press, Reading, UK. Okazaki, Shoko, 1989. Kanat Iran no Chikasuiro (In Japanese), Rinsousya publisher, Japan. Sekai No Kangai To Haisui Kikakuiinkai, 1995. Sekai no Kangai to Haisui; Mizu to Midori no Tame ni (in Japanese), Ie no Hikari Kyoukai publisher, Japan. Sutton, Sally, 1984, The Falaj a Traditional Co-Operative System of Water Management, Waterlines Vol.2 No.3.

38 Szollosi-Nagy, A., 1998. “Eau et Culture” (in French), Conférence International “Eau et Development Durable”, UNESCO, Paris, France. Todaro. Pietro, 2000. The Ingruttati of the Plain of Palermo, In the proceeding of The First International Symposium on Qanat, Volume IV (English Papers), held in Yazd, Iran, May 8-11. Wahby, Hassan and Al-Harthi, Saud, 1995. General Controlled Irrigation Systems for Optimum Use of Water in falaj Keed at Bahla, Proceedings of Sultanate of Oman International Conference on Water Resource Management in Arid Countries, pp 9-15, Ministry of Water Resources, Oman. Wilkinson, J.C., 1977. Water and Tribal Settlement in Southeast Arabia: a Study of the Aflaj of Oman, Oxford, Clarendon Press. The Proceeding ,(ﻥﺸﺄة اﻻﻓﻼج ﻓﻲ ﻋﻤﺎن) ,Wilkinson, J.C., 1980. Nashat al aflaj fi Oman of The Symposium of Oman Studies, Ministry of National Heritage and Culture, Oman , Volume 8, pp. 105-179. Wilkinson, J.C., 1983. The Origins of the Aflaj of Oman, The Journal of Omani Studies, Volume 6 part1, pp. 177-194. Wilkinson, J.C., 1987. The Imamate Tradition of Oman, Cambridge Middle East Library, Cambridge University Press. Wilkinson, T.J., 1977. Sohar Ancient Field Projects, Interim Report No.3, The Journal of Oman Studies, Vol.3, Part1, pp. 13-17, Ministry of National Heritage and Culture, Sultanate of Oman. Wushiki, H., 1997. Some Hydro-Scientific Aspects of Arabia, Al-RAFIDAN, Vol. XVIII, Special Volume in Commemoration of the 70th Birthday of Professor Hideo Fuji, The Institute for Cultural Studies of Ancient Iraq, Kokushikan University, Tokyo, Japan. Zorqah, Mohammed Ali, 1999. Alaflaj (Alqanawat): Anzimat Alray wa Miyahiha Al- (اﻷﻓﻼج (اﻝﻘﻨﻮات): أﻥﻈﻤﺔ اﻝﺮي و ﻣﻴﺎهﻬﺎ اﻝﺨﻔﻴﺔ, أﻋﻘﺪ و أﻗﺪم اﻷﻥﻈﻤﺔ اﻝﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ ﻓﻲ ﺕﺎریﺦ Khafiyah .First Ed, Dar Al Hasad Publisher, Syria , اﻝﺤﻀﺎرة)

39 CHAPTER 3 Traditional Water Allocation of Aflaj 3.1 Introduction In falaj irrigation system, water is distributed by time basis. Only in few cases volume basis is used. The widest spread method uses a water share time unit called athar. In this method, the irrigation rotation, dawran, is divided to several days (normally between 4 to 20 days). Each full day is divided into two baddas, daytime so each badda , (أﺛﺎر) badda and nighttime badda. Each full day is divided to 48 athars .is theoretically equals to 30 minutes (اﺛﺮ) will consist of 24 athars. Therefore, athar As a rule, in the traditional scheduling method, the daytime badda starts at sunrise and ends at sunset, where the nighttime badda starts at sunset and ends at sunrise. Farmers were using several methods to verify the water share on the field, like estimating time or using the complex sundial and stars system. After the modern watch became available for farmers in the last century, they start gradually to check the time using these watches, and they came to fully depend on these watches in some (زواﻟﻲ) timing and then the Zawali (ﻏﺮوﺑﻲ) systems, by adapting first the Ghoroobi timing. The terminology and nomenclature of star system for irrigation and units of water share is too complicated and unorganized, as well its knowledge is disappearing. The traditional way of irrigation scheduling is differ from one falaj system to another. Even thought farmers use athars as a standard unit in most of the aflaj the way of inspecting the length of each athar is varied among different aflaj. Modernizing traditional systems of irrigation requires first understanding the existing systems. Previous studies focused on the efficiencies of irrigation in aflaj system (for example, Norman et al, 1998a, 1998b, 1999). This chapter will explain the traditional method of water allocation and irrigation timing in aflaj. Nineteen villages in northern Oman have been selected for this study. The main criterion for selecting these villages is that these villages have aflaj varied by type, size and method of irrigation scheduling. General and detailed data about water distribution and management were collected. Farmers were interviewed informally. Detailed interviews were done with the falaj director (wakil) and the village head (sheikh).

40 3.2 Methods I. Site selection The investigated nineteen villages and towns shown in Fig. 3.2.1, which further divided to the investigated villages of Ad Dhahirah Region (Fig. 3.2.2) and the investigated villages of al-Batinah and Ad Dakhiliyah Regions (Fig 3.2.3). Detailed research tasks are carried out on falaj al- Hageer (N23º 12´-E57º 30´), falaj ad-Dariz, (N23º 19´-E56º 36´) and falaj an-Nujaid (N23º 28´-E56º 47´) (Fig. 3.2.4). Falaj ad- Dariz and falaj an-Nujaid data are discussed in chapter 5. The criteria for selecting these villages as case studies are listed below: • These aflaj are ranged from small-sized to large sized aflaj. • In theses aflaj farmers use different methods for irrigation scheduling including sundial and stars and modern watch. • These aflaj are easily accessible by the investigator. • A good relation was built between the researcher and the aflaj authorities, and farmers are co-operative. • The group of selected aflaj includes the three types of aflaj, i.e., ghaili, daudi and Aini.

II. Data collection General data about water distribution and management where collected, like number of farmers and their correspondent athars, method of irrigation scheduling, village organization structure, etc. The majority of the data for this study is collected in the period 2001 - 2002. However, data colleted in previous time (1995-2001) is also used. Some data were retrieved from various literatures for comparison. The collected data include: .which owned/hold by each farmer , (ﻣﻠﻚ) Water share, mulk • • Daily irrigation schedule. • Farmers gained or lost time, from their water share “athars”, during irrigation. • Way of inspecting the sundial and stars, including names, positions, and shapes of starts. • Actual length of each athar received by farmers. This was done after many measurements of athar by athar in full day (48 athars). • Personal observations.

41 Data are collected directly from the field; however data from other sources (such as publications) also used for comparison. The author went to the site as many times as it required interviewing the farmers. Author also stayed many times overnight on the site, and record a 24 hours scheduling for falaj al-Hageer. The son of the wakil (falaj director) was trained to collect data in daily bases and record it. Most of the farmers were interviewed. Detailed interviews were done with the falaj wakils and the village head, sheikhs. The author kept continues contact with the falaj community through or with members of the families of the wakils of the three case study aflaj. This is to insure return check at any time regarding the subject of this study. The flowing Omani organizations are also visited to collect more information on aflaj from published work: • Ministry of Environment and Regional Municipalities and Water Resources • Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth • Sultan Qaboos University • Ministry of Information • Ministry of Heritage and Culture • The former Public Library of Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO)

42 0 20 40 60 80 100 Km

Fig. 3.2.1 Investigated villages.

43 1

4 5

6 7

0 10 20 30 Km

Fig. 3.2.2 Ad Dhahirah Region. ﻇﺎهﺮ اﻟﻔﻮارس() Dahir .1 (اﻟﻤﺤﻴﻮل) Mayhul .2 (ﻣﺠﺰي) Mijzi .3 (اﻟﻨﺠﻴﺪ) An-Nujaid .4 ( اﻟﻬﻴﺎل) Al-Hayyal .5 (اﻟﺪریﺰ) Al-Dariz .6 ( اﻟﻤﺤﻴﺪث) Al- Muhaidith .7

2 7 3

4 5 6

11 12 10

0 10 20 30 Km

Fig. 3.2.3 Al-Batinah and Ad Dakhiliyah Regions.

( اﻟﺮﺳﺘﺎق) Ar-Rustaqِ .1 (اﻟﻌﻴﺮ) Al-Air .2 ( اﻟﻌَﻮاﺑﻲ) Al-Awabi .3 ( اﻟﻬﺠﻴﺮ) Al-Hageer .4 (ﺳﺘﺎل) Stall .5 (ﺛﻘﺐ) Thuqb .6 (ﺳﻤﺎﺋﻞ) Samail .7 ( اﻟﺤﻤﺮا, ﺡﻤﺮا اﻟﻌﺒﺮیﻴﻦ) Al-Hamra .8 (ﺳﻴﻖ) Saiyq .9 (ﻥﺰوى) Nizwa .10 ( ﺑﺮآﺔ اﻟﻤﻮز) Birkat al Mawz .11 (إزآﻲ) Izki .12

56o 58o

Arabian Gulf Musandam

Madha (Oman) Gulf of Oman Dubai

Al Buraymi Sohar 24o Al Batinah Muscat U.A.E Muscat Ad-Dariz Al-Hageer Ibri An-Nujaid Ad Dhahirah Nizwa Sur

Ash-Sharqiyah 23o

Ad-Dhakhikiyah Saudi Arabia

Al-Wusta

Hayma

N Dhofar

Yemen 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 km Salalah

Arabian Sea

Disclaimer: This is an approximated map and not an authority of any kind except of its purpose in the theses. Fig. 3.2.4 The location of al-Hageer, ad-Dariz and an-Nujaid.

46 3.3 Falaj water allocation The method of distributing water among farmers is complex in Oman and it differs from one place to another (Wilkinson, 1977, Abdel Rahman and Omezzine, 1996). In most aflaj of Oman, water is distributed by time basis; nevertheless, volume basis also exists in a few cases. The most wide spread method is using a time-share called athar. For small aflaj systems simpler methods are used (Al-Ghafri et al, 2003).

I. Falaj-water distribution by athar After the construction of falaj, farmers create a committee of experienced people to distribute falaj water shares among falaj owners. The committees investigate the falaj flow rate, water flow fluctuations, soil type, number of owners and their proportional contribution in constructing the falaj, etc. In the athar basis distribution, the first step is to decide the irrigation rotation, is the irrigation cycle, normally 7 to 14 days. However, it can (دوران) dawran. Dawran be as short as 4 days or as long as 21 days. The most important factors when deciding the dawran are soil type and flow rate of the falaj. For example, villages with light soil and low flow rate require short dawran like 7 days or less, and conversely, villages with heavy soil and large flow rate may sustain more than 14 days. For example; falaj Stall has a dawran of 14 days, falaj al-Hageer, 7 days, falaj Daris (Nizwa) 8.5 days, falaj al-Farsakhi in Samail 8 days and falaj an-Nujaid has a dawran of 10 days (Table 3.3.1). In each falaj, the dawran is divided to many subdivisions of time. Perhaps, one of the reasons behind having the irrigation cycle so long in aflaj; is due to the dependent on date palm as major crop. Hence, date palms can survive in extreme conditions of irrigation such as drought. Most of aflaj agricultural lands are covered with date groves, for example, in falaj Daris, one of the largest aflaj in Oman, about 90% of the cultivated area is planted in date palms (Travers Morgan, 1993). After dawran is decided, water share is divided between falaj owners using The individual water share from the dawran can be . (أﺛﺮ) ”units of water share “athar called with different names among Omani aflaj. For example, In the Islamic law -Khaborah in Arabic .” (ﺧَﺒﻮرة) individual share is called “Khaborah , (اﻟﺸﺮیﻌﺔ) books Arabic dictionaries means, “share” (example, Al-Waseet, 1990). In Al-Batinah region In .( ﺁد) "such as in the aflaj of Wadi bani Kharous, the individual share is called "aad "(ردّﻩ.) the interior of Oman like in the aflaj of Samail, it is called “Raddah

47 Each full day in the dawran is divided into one or two baddas. Each full day is divided to 48 athars, so if the day is equal to one badda, badda will have 48 athars. If it is equal to two baddas then, each badda will have 24 athars normally day has two baddas, day badda and night badda. Wilkinson (1977) reported a falaj, which has 3 baddas in each day. In this falaj, each badda has 16 athars so the full day is also equal to 48 athars. Al-Hajri (1998) mentioned that the badda is equal to full day, from sunrise to the next sunrise in the Sharqiyah Region (Eastern Oman). Practically, qiyas is the .(آﻴﺎس or ﻗﻴﺎس) Each athar is divided into 24 qiyases smallest unit of water share, which is approximately equal to the time required to irrigate one date palm tree with good falaj flow. Athar is commonly used in all northern and central Oman. Other units may have different names or length of time. Like Al-Marshudi (1995 and 2000) mentioned, equals to 1/4 athar and rabiya equals to 6 athars. There are some other (ﻗﺎﻣﺔ) qamah which equals to 6 athars (1/4 of half-day badda) and (رﺑﻴﻊ) units of time like rabee equals to 6 qiyas (1/4 of athar). However, there are smaller units; mithqal (رﺑﻌﺔ) riba Like in falaj al-Awabi, qiyas is equal to 8 mithqals; each . (ﺡﺒﺔ) and habbah (ﻣﺜﻘﺎل) mithqal equal to 36 habbahs. Theoretically, an athar is equal to 30 minuets, therefore habbah equals to 0.26 second (Fig. 3.3.1). Wilkinson (1977) reported a system of dividing water share from the book of the falaj al-Malki of the town of Izki (in the Interior Region of Oman), in which an daqiqah is (دﻗﻴﻘﺔ,) athar is divided to 24 qiyas, qiyases is divided to 24 daqiqah One jalilah will be equal . (ﺝﻠﻴﻠﺔ)and shariah to 24 jalilah (ﺵﺮیﻌﺔ) divided to 24 shariah to 5.43 x 10-3 seconds (Fig. 3.3.2). Practically, it is non-measurable, hence, these small unites are used only in inheritance. It is noticed that the length of the time-share is inversely proportional to the flow rate and/or number of falaj owners and it is directly proportional to the contribution of the owner in constructing the falaj. If the government contributes in constructing the falaj, it also have some shares of water and lands (Wahby and Al-Harthi, 1995). When the water is divided between the shareholders, this division never changes but the water and land shares can be sold or rented. After the owner die, land and water share will be distributed among his family according to Islamic regulations. Distributing water by time bases in qanat systems is practiced in all the countries that have qanats, however there is variations in the nomenclature and lengths of the time units that used. For example, Bonine (1989) reported that in Iran

48 qanat water is also divided by time-shares, the higher the flows rate the smaller the time divisions. Each farmer will irrigate his farm(s) with same number of athars at each dawran. The sequence of water shares in the rotation of irrigation does not change even thought a farmer misses irrigating his land during the rotation (Norman, et al, 1998a). Most of aflaj have special number of athars to be rented for falaj service and maintenance. In these aflaj, some water shares are not fixed with land, so it can be sold or rented separately by auction. The price of athar, for rent or sold, is varied depending on the availability of water and auction events. For example falaj al- Hageer (small falaj) has 15 athars for the falaj from a total of 336 athars, 7 days dawran (Al-Ghafri et al, 2000a), (Fig. 3.3.3). A large falaj may have more water shares to be devoted to the falaj or common use, like in falaj Daris at Nizwa; the dawran is divided to 408 athars in which 49 athars are allocated for the falaj. In this falaj 15% of the dawran is allocated to Bait Al-Mal, 27% is Waqf and 46% for is money or estate ( وﻗﻒ) ”individual farmers (Fig. 3.3.4). Waqf “endowments devoted for charity purpose. The water that allocated for waqf is to be rented to use the revenue for mosques and Islamic schools. The Ministry of Religion Affairs directly controls the waqf. Bait al-mal is a communal property of the Muslim state. The government also owns the Bait Al-Mal water. The rent of one athar in falaj Daris of Nizwa in the period 1984-1993 was 0.5 to 30.0 Omani Riyal (1 Omani Riyal = 2.6 US$) per athar. However the selling price is 6000 to 7000 Omani riyal per athar. The flow rate of this falaj was changing from 60 l/s to 300 l/s in that period (Barriere, 1993).

49 Table 3.3.1 Length of irrigation cycle (dawran) in some aflaj of Oman.

No Falaj Location Type Dawran (days)

N23º 18´-E57º 59´ Ghaili 8 اﻟﻔﺮﺳﺨﻲ (ﺳﻤﺎﺋﻞ) Al-Farsakhi 1 N23º 34´-E56º 38´ Ghaili 7 اﻟﻤﺤﻴﻮل Al-Mahyul 2 N23º 38´-E56º 39´ Ghaili 10 ﻇﺎهﺮ اﻟﻔﻮارس Dahir 3 N23º 32´-E56º 41´ Ghaili 7 ﻣﺠﺰي Mijzi 4 N23º 17´-E56º 41´ Daudi 10 اﻟﻤﺤﻴﺪث Al-Muhaidith 5 N23º 25´-E56º 44´ Daudi 7 اﻟﻬﻴّﺎل Al-Hayyal 6 N23º 18´-E57º 59´ Daudi 9 اﻟﻤﺮیﻔﻊ (ﺳﻤﺎﺋﻞ) Al-Muraifa 7 N23º 19´-E56º 36´ Daudi 10 اﻟﻨﺠﻴﺪ An Nujaid 8 N23º 19´-E56º 36´ Daudi 19 اﻟﺪریﺰ Ad Dariz 9 N23º 18´-E57º 31´ Daudi 15 اﻟﻌﻮاﺑﻲ Al-Awabi 10 N23º 17 ´-E57º 58´ Daudi 18 اﻟﺤﻴﻠﻲ (ﺳﻤﺎﺋﻞ) Al-Haily 11 N23º 07´-E57º 17´ Daudi 8 اﻟﺤﻤﺮاء Al-Hamra 12 N22º 55´-E57º 31´ Daudi 8.5 دارس (ﻥﺰوى) Daris 13 N23º 13´-E57º 33´ Daudi 14 ﺳﺘﺎل Stall 14 N23º 19´-E57º 31´ Aini 7 اﻟﻌﻴﺮ Al-Air 15 N23º 12´-E57º 30´ Aini 7 اﻟﻬﺠﻴﺮ Al-Hageer 16 N23º 24´-E 57º´ 25 Aini 11 اﻟﻜﺴﻔﺔ (اﻟﺮﺳﺘﺎق) Al-Kasfa 17 N23º 11´-E57º 33´ Aini 8 ﺛﻘﺐ Thuqb 18

50 1 dawran equal 1day 1 dawran to 15 days

2 baddas Day badda Night badda

1 badda equal to 24 athars 1 athar =30min

24 athars

1 athar =24qiyases 1 qiyas = 1.25 minute

24 qiyases

1 qiyas =8mithqals

8 mithqals

1 mithqal =36habahs

36 habahs

1 habah =0.26second Fig. 3.3.1 Traditional water-share units of falaj al-Awabi.

51 1 day 1 dawran

1 dawran equal to 9 days 2 baddas Day badda Night badda

1 badda equal to 24 athars 1 athar =30min 24 athars

1 athar =24qiyases 1 qiyas = 1.25 minute

24 qiyases

1 qiyas =24daqiqah

24 daqiqah

1 daqiqah =24shariah

24 shariah

1 shariah =24jalilah

24 jalilah

1 jalilah = 5.43 x 10-3 second Fig. 3.3.2 Traditional water share units of falaj al-Malki, Izki.

Falaj Service 4.5%

15 athars

Private Owners 95.5% 321 athars

Fig. 3.3.3 Water rights distribution of falaj al-Hageer, Wadi Bani Kharous.

Bait Al-Mal 15.0%

Al-Waqf 27.0% Falaj Organization 12.0%

Private Owners 46.0%

Fig. 3.3.4 Water rights distribution of falaj Daris in Nizwa.

53 II. Other methods for falaj-water distribution a) Estimated intervals In some aflaj systems, one day is divided into estimated intervals. For example, the full day can be divided into seven intervals between dawn, sunrise, midday, Islamic prayer time at afternoon, sunset, prayer time at night, and midnight respectively. This way is seldom used because it has no clear length of time or standard unit so it causes much conflict between farmers. b) Tasa In Jabal al-Akhdar Mountain, in north-center of Oman, and some surrounding villages, another method of water distribution was used. Farmers utilized a water In some cases the tasa itself is used as a . (ﺻﺤﻠﺔ)sahlah (ﻃﺎﺳﺔtimer called tasa (or time unit. However, in other places the tasa is divided to the common time unit of aflaj, athar. Sahlah is a timing device using water and two containers. The upper container, called tasa, placed on a bigger container, which filled with water (Fig 3.3.5). Tasa has a small hole so water fill it up slowly until it sink. Farmers’ use the time takes the water to fill the entire container as a single unit of water share, tasa. The book shown in Fig 3.3.6 describes the water share of farming community of falaj Seeq at Jabal al-Akhdar Mountain. In this falaj tasa was used as a unit of water share, so each owner of water share will get a multiples or divisions of tasa. In some aflaj, the volume of the upper container and the size of the hole are selected so it takes the water two athars (one-hour) to fill the upper container. Tasa may be marked for each athar, each half athar, and each ¼ of athar (Al-Abri, undated). Similar method is also used in central Iran where the tasa is called "tas”, “tasht”,” fenjun”,” penyun”,” kasa” or “jam" (Honari, 1989). c) Water tank In some parts of Oman, usually in the mountains, for small falaj system, the ,constructed by local cement , (ﻟﺠﻞ) falaj water is stored in a large water tank, Liggil sarooj. Water then distributed by volume according to the size of the owned farm(s). For example, a farmer with a small farm may have one full tank; another one with larger farm will have more water, like two tanks. In such falaj system flow rate is very low and land shares are small (Al-Ghafri, et al, 2000b), Fig. 3.3.7.

54 d) Distributing water by badda .Ibri, the smallest water share division is badda , ( اﻟﻤﺤﻴﺪث) In falaj al-Muhaidith In this falaj, the dawran is divided to 10 days, each day with two baddas (Al-Ghafri, 2002) (Fig. 3.3.8). The reason for having big time share like badda is because this falaj is owned by only few farmers.

55 Upper container, tasa

Lower container

Hole

Fig. 3.3.5 Tasa of falaj Saiq at Jabal al-Akhdar.

Fig. 3.3.6 The falaj Book of falaj Saiq at Jabal al-Akhdar.

56 Marks for water volume Feeding canal Farming land

Fig. 3.3.7 Tank for water distribution in Wadi bani Kharous, (Photo: Upper photo on April 2003, lower photo on November 2000).

1 dawran = 10 days 1 dawran

1day 1day= 2 baddas

2 baddas Day badda Night badda

Fig. 3.3.8 Traditional water-share units of falaj al-Muhaydith, Ibri.

58 3.4 Irrigation Scheduling In section 3 it is cited that in most of aflaj of Oman, the day is divided to two badda, daytime badda and nighttime badda. Each badda has 24 athars, in traditional irrigation scheduling system. The daytime badda starts at sunrise and it ends at sunset, and the nighttime badda starts at sunset and it ends at sunrise. In scheduling irrigation, farmers start counting athars from sunrise as on Fig. 3.4.1. An example of traditional irrigation schedule is the schedule of falaj al-Hageer. In this falaj the dawran is divided to 7 days that is equal to 14 badda or 336 athars. .so each riba’ is equal to 6 athars ,(رﺑﻌﺔ) ’Each badda is divided to 4 quarters, riba Table 3.4.1 shows a complete schedule of irrigation for falaj al-Hageer. This table shows the order (day 1 to day 7) of irrigations as of January 15, 1996 (Monday) to January 21, 1996 (Sunday). The athars that shown in bold are the athars which set for waqf (mosque and falaj service) (Al-Ghafri et al, 2000a). It is clear from the table that each day is divided to two baddas in which each badda is equal to 24 athars. Details about falaj al-Hageer schedule are discussed on section 4.4 (Table 4.4.1). Several methods were developed to verify the athar-basis water-share for farmers on the field. The sundial and stars method was the most common traditional way of irrigation scheduling in Northern Oman. In this method, farmers use sundial at the daytime and special stars at the nighttime. The process of inspecting the sundial or (ﻣﺤﺎﺿﺮة.) or mohadharah (ﻣﺤﺎیﻨﺔ) the stars for water shares is called mohaynah . ( ﻋََََ ﻠ ﻢ) alam , (ﻟﻤﺪSundials, locally called lamad (or The place for mohayanah, where the sundial is located, should be in the head of the falaj system, before any divisions in the distribution system. Usually it is located near the main fort of the village where the sheikh is resided (Al-Ghafri et al, 2000b).

59 Table 3.4.1 Irrigation schedule of falaj al-Hageer. Owned athars Day order Discrete irrigations in badda 1 Discrete irrigations in badda 2 1 8 2 4 10 8 7 9 2 9 15 14 3 7 3 24 8 7 9 4 14 10 22 2 5 10 14 24 6 11 13 24 7 24 5 9 10

Sunrise Sunset

Fig. 3.4.1 Traditional full day water-share divisions.

61 I. Traditional time measurements in daytime One common type for time measurement in aflaj is sundial. A version of this sundial consists of a stick, 8 cm in diameter and 2 m long, fixed vertically on a flat rectangular area. Special selected stones, which are carefully spaced, mark the area (Fig. 3.4.2). The stones that represent early and late daytime athars are spaced farther ,(ﺝﺎﻣﻮد) apart than the stones that represent midday athars. Each stone called jamood Farmers watch the movement of the stick shadow over the . (ﺝﻮاﻣﻴﺪ) plural jawameed set of stones and count athars by the time it takes the shadow to move from one stone to the next one. These stones are marked to represent each athar on the daytime badda; so 24 stones are placed in one line in the direction of East-West. This marked A system like this has three line-lamads to adjust . (ﻟﻤﺪ) line is also called also lamad the change in length of daytime, due to the tilt of the earth throughout the seasons, which affect the position of the shadow. Each of the three line-lamads are used for summer, winter and spring + autumn (Fig. 3.4.3 and Fig. 3.4.4). The stones with the same athars in the three line-lamads are connected with a line. Similar type of sundial .(Fig. 3.4.5) (ﻋﻠﻢ) can be found in falaj al-Dariz, Ibri. Here the sundial is called, alam It consists of a 30 cm metal stick fixed vertically on a big solid flat rock, which covered by concrete. The rock is marked permanently for athars and subdivisions of athars. This type of lamad also has 3 lines for summer, spring and autumn and winter. If the village situated between high mountains, the number of athars to be inspected using the sundial will be less than 24, so the farmers use the surrounding environment to complete the missing athars. This is because the sunshine time on the village will be less than the actual daytime length. The villages of Wadi Bani Kharous like Stall and al-Hageer are examples of this case.

62 Stick Flat land marked carefully with stones

Fig. 3.4.2 Sundial (lamad) of falaj al-Kasfah, ar-Rustaq (Photo: June 2001).

8cm 2m

Side view

Top view Atharsmarkedby stones 19 16 12 8 4 2

Summer Spring and autumn

Winter

East West

Fig. 3.4.3 Sketch of the sundial of falaj Stall.

64 Stick

Summer lamad

Spring and autumn lamad Winter lamad

Stone representing athars (jamood)

Fig. 3.4.4 Sundial (lamad) of falaj Stall in Wadi Bani Kharous (Photo: November 2000).

65 Fig. 3.4.5 Sundial (lamad) of falaj ad-Dariz in Ibri (Photo: April 2003).

66 II. Traditional time measurements in nighttime At night, farmers use stars in scheduling irrigation. Special set of stars is located for irrigation. These stars are well known by the wakil or arif of the falaj. Farmers use the time between the rise of a particular star(s) to the rise of the following star(s) from .(ﻗﻮاﺳﻢ) special set of stars. It is categorized into principal stars and dividers, qawasim Normally, time-share allowed between any of the principal stars is between 1 to 3 athars. Dividers divide the time between two principals ranging from 2 to 6 subintervals. However, divider stars are not very important in scheduling irrigation. The total number of the principal stars, which are used in Oman, is between 20 to 25 (Tables 3.4.2 to 3.4.6). This set is fixed for a particular system of aflaj. Among aflaj of Oman, different nomenclature and dividers between the scheduling stars are used. About half of the total number of the full set is used on every night, depending on the day in the year. By comparing the data on Tables 3.4.2 to 3.4.6, we can conclude that the star system is different from one falaj to another. Even there are many common stars used, the athars that associated with them are not same. As well, the total number of athars for each set is not 48 athars as it should be theoretically. Table 3.4.7 shows 6 stars used in 5 different aflaj systems that mentioned in this chapter. In this table, we can notice that the time-share of each star is differing by 0.5 - 1.0 athar per star among the 5 aflaj. The star system of falaj al-Hageer is not identical with that of falaj Al-Awabi and Stall, even though they are located in same geographical area; however, falaj al-Awabi star system is a modification of Stall’s system. This may be due the fact that the dominating tribe at al-Hagger is much related with the tribes in the other side of the Jabal Akhdar Mountain, like Al-Hamra and Samail. In the traditional sundial-stars timing, the most difficult time to verify athars is the transition between the daytime badda and nighttime badda. Because this timing depends on the observation of the movement of the sun or stars, it is difficult to decide the start and the end of each badda, during the sunrise and sunset. Recently, in many aflaj, farmers increasingly use watches for water distribution. They count 30 minutes for each athar where the full day is equal to 48 athars. However, in many aflaj systems farmers still use the old time system called Ghoroobi It differ from the . (زواﻟﻲ)not the standard meridian time, called Zawali , (ﻏﺮوﺑﻲ) definition of the start and end of the day and night.

67 Table. 3.4.2 The star set for irrigations timing in falaj al-Hamra (created from a text by Al- Abri, (undated)).

No Name of star(s) Number of athars Number of dividers

1 3 اﻟﻌﻘﺮب al-Aqrab 1 1 3 آﻮي Kuwi 2 1 2 اﻟﻤﻮﻓﻲ al-Mufi 3 1 2 اﻟﻐﺮاب al-Ghurab 4 1 2 اﻻدم al-Adam 5 2 2 اﻟﺼّﺎرة اﻻوﻟﻰ al-Saarah al-Oula 6 2 2 اﻟﺼّﺎرة اﻟﺜﺎﻥﻴﺔ al-Saarah al-Thaniyah 7 1 2 اﻟﺴﻌﺪ al-Sa’ad 8 4 3 اﻟﻜﻮآﺒﻴﻦ al-Kawkabain 9 2 2 اﻟﺜﺮیﺎ al-Thuraiya 10 3 2 اﻟﺪﺑﺮان al-Dubran 11 1 2 اﻟﺸﺒّﺎآﺔ al-Shabakah 12 3 2 اﻟﻐﺰوة al-Gawza 13 2 2 اﻟﺸﻌﺮة اﻟﻨﺼﻴﻔﺔ al-Shara al-Nashiyah 14 4 2 اﻟﺠﻨﺐ al-Ganb 15 3 2 اﻟﻀﺮاﻋﻴﻦ al-Dhira’ain 16 2 2 اﻟﺒﻄﻴﻦ al-Batin 17 4 2 اﻟﺼﻔﺎ al-Sufaa 18 1 2 اﻟﻤﻮاﺛﻴﺐ al-Mawatheeb 19 1 3 اﻟﻌﻘﺮب al-Aqrab 1 Total 41 Athars

Table. 3.4.3 The star set for irrigations timing in aflaj of Samail (created from a text by Al- Abri, (undated)).

No Name of star(s) Number of athars

2 اﻟﻔﺘﺢ al-Fateh 1 2 اﻟﺜﺮیﺎ al-Thuraiya 2 2 ﺑﻮ ﻗﺎﺑﻞ Bu Qabil 3 2 اﻟﺸﺎﺑﻚ al-Shabik 4 2 اﻟﻈﺎﻟﻤﻲ al-Zhalmi 5 2 اﻟﺸﻌﺎیﺮ al-Shaayir 6 2 اﻟﺠﻨﺐ al-Ganab 7 2 (1 اﻟﻀﺮاع ’al-Dhira ) 8 2 اﻟﺒﻄﻴﻦ al-Betain 9 2 اﻟﺜﻘﻴﻠﺔ al-Thaqeelah 10 2 اﻟﻤﺬاب al-Muthab 11 2 اﻟﺬآﺮیﻦ al-Thakarain 12 2 اﻟﻐﻔﺮ al-Ghafar 13 2 اﻟﺰﺑﺎن al-Zaban 14 2 آﻮي al-Kuwi 15 2 اﻟﻘﻠﺐ al-Qalb 16 2 اﻟﻤﻨﺼﻒ al-Munsif 17 2 اﻟﻤﻮﻓﻲ al-Mufi 18 2 اﻟﻐﺮاب al-Ghurab 19 2 اﻻدم al-Adam 20 2 اﻟﺼّﺎرة اﻻوﻟﻰ al-Saarrah al Oula 21 2 اﻟﺼّﺎرة اﻟﺜﺎﻥﻴﺔ al-Saarrah al-Thaniyah 22 2 اﻟﺴﻌﺪ al-Sa’ad 23 2 اﻟﻜﻮآﺒﻴﻦ al-Kawkabain 24 2 اﻟﻔﺘﺢ al-Fateh 1 Total 48 Athars

1 Not written in the reference but by comparing Tables 3.4.1 to 3.4.5, the Missing star is al-Dhira’.

69 Table 3.4.4 The star set for irrigations timing in falaj al-Awabi.

No Name of star(s) Number of athars

2 ﺑﻮ ﺝﺒّﺎن Bu Gaban 1 2 اﻟﻐﻔﺮ al-Ghafar 2 4 اﻟﺰﺑﺎﻥﺎت al-Zabanat 3 2 آﻮي Kuwi 4 1 اﻟﻘﻮاﺳﻢ al-Qasim 5 1 اﻟﻤﻨﺼﻒ al-Munsif 6 1.5 اﻟﻄﺎﺋﺮ اﻟﻌﻠﻮي al-Tayer Al- Oulwi 7 2 اﻟﻄﺎﺋﺮ اﻟﺴﻔﻠﻲ al-Tayer Al-Sufli 8 2.5 اﻟﻐﺮاب al-Ghurab 9 2 اﻻدم al-Adam 10 2 اﻟﺼّﺎرة اﻻوﻟﻰ al-Saarrah al Oula 11 2 اﻟﺼّﺎرة اﻟﺜﺎﻥﻴﺔ al-Saarrah al Thaniyah 12 2 اﻟﺼّﺎرة اﻟﺜﺎﻟﺜﺔ al-Saarrah al Thalithah 13 2 اﻟﻜﻮآﺒﻴﻦ al-Kawkabain 14 2 اﻟﻔﺘﺢ al-Fateh 15 2 اﻟﺜﺮیﺎ al-Thuraiya 16 2 اﻟﺪﺑﺮان اﻟﺴﻔﻠﻲ Dubran Al-Sufli 17 3 اﻟﺪﺑﺮان اﻟﻌﻠﻮي Dubran Al-Oulwi 18 2.5 اﻻیﻤﻦ al-Aymen 19 1 اﻟﺸﻌﺮة اﻟﺒﻴﻀﺎ al-Sharah Al-Baydha 20 2 اﻟﺸﻌﺮة اﻟﺤﻤﺮا al-Sharah Al-Hamra 21 2.5 اﻟﺠﻨﺐ al-Ganab 22 3 اﻟﻀﺮاع ’al-Dhira 23 2 اﻟﻔﺮﻓﺮة al-Farfarah 24 2 اﻟﻤﻮاﺛﻴﺐ al-Mawatheeb 25 2 ﺑﻮ ﺝﺒّﺎن Bu Gaban 1 Total 52 Athars

70 Table 3.4.5 The star set for irrigations timing in falaj Stall.

No Name of star(s) Number of athars

2 اﻟﺜﺮیﺎ al-Thuraiya 1 3 اﻟﺪﺑﺮان al-Dubran 2 3 اﻟﻴﻤﻴﻦ al-Yameen 3 3.5 اﻟﺸﻌﺎیﺮ al-Shair 4 2.5 اﻟﺠﻨﺐ al-Ganb 5 3 اﻟﻀﺮاع ’al-Thraa 6 2 اﻟﻔﺮﻓﺮة al-Farfarah 7 2 اﻟﻤﻮاﺛﻴﺐ al-Mawatheeb 8 2 ﺑﻮ ﺝﺒﺎن Bu-Gabban 9 2 اﻟﻐﻔﺮ al-Ghafar 10 2 اﻟﺰﺑﺎﻥﺎت al-Zabanat 11 2 آﻮي Kuwi 12 2 اﻟﻤﻨﺼﻒ al-Munsif 13 1.5 اﻟﻄﺎیﺮ al-Tayer 14 2.5 اﻟﻐﺮاب al-Ghurab 15 2 اﻻدم al-Adam 16 2 اﻟﺸﻌﺮة اﻻوﻟﻰ al-Sarah Al-Oula 17 2 اﻟﺸﻌﺮة اﻟﻮﺳﻄﻰ al-Sarah Alwusta 18 2 ا ﻟ ﺼّّ ﺎ ر ة اﻻﺧﻴﺮة al-Sarah Al-Akhirah 19 2 اﻟﻜﻮآﺒﻴﻦ al-Kawkabain 20 2 اﻟﻔﺘﺢ al-Fateh 21 2 اﻟﺜﺮیﺎ al-Thuraiya 1 Total 47 Athars

71 Table 3.4.6 The star set for irrigations timing in falaj al-Hageer.

No Name of star(s) Number of athars

2 آﻮي Kuwi 1 2 اﻟﻤﻨﺼﻒ al-Munsif 2 1.5 اﻟﻄﺎیﺮ al-Tayer 3 2.5 اﻟﻐﺮاب al-Ghurab 4 2.5 اﻻدم al-Adam 5 2 اﻟﺼّﺎرة اﻻوﻟﻰ al-Saarrah al Oula 6 2 اﻟﺼّﺎرة اﻟﻮﺳﻄﻰ al-Saarrah al Wosta 7 1 اﻻﺧﻠﻊ ’al-Akhla 8 1 اﻟﻌﺮش al-Arsh 9 2 اﻟﻜﻮآﺒﻴﻦ al-Kawkabain 10 2 اﻟﻔﺘﺢ al- Fateh 11 2 اﻟﺜﺮیﺎ al-Thuraiya 12 3 اﻟﺪﺑﺮان al-Dubran 13 3 اﻟﻴﻤﻴﻦ al-Ymeen 14 1 اﻟﺸﻌﺮة اﻟﺒﻴﻀﺎ al-Shara’ al Beedha 15 2.5 اﻟﺸﻌﺮة اﻟﺤﻤﺮا al-Shara’ al Hamra 16 2.5 اﻟﺠﻨﺐ al-Ganb 17 2 اﻟﻀﺮاع اﻻول al-Dhira’ al O’wal 18 1.5 اﻟﻀﺮاع اﻻﺧﻴﺮ al-Dhira’ al Akheer 19 2 اﻟﻔﺮﻓﺮة al-Farfarah 20 2 اﻟﻤﻮاﺛﻴﺐ al-Mawatheeb 21 2 ﺑﻮ ﺝﺒّﺎن Bu Gabban 22 2 اﻟﻐﻔﺮ اﻻول al-Ghafar al A’wal 23 1 اﻟﻐﻔﺮ اﻻﺧﻴﺮ al-Ghafar al Akheer 24 2.5 اﻟﻌﻘﺮب al-Aqrab 25 2 آﻮي Kuwi 1 Total 49.5 Athars

72 Table 3.4.7 Variations of athars using same stars in different aflaj.

Falaj

Stars Al-Hamra Samail Al-Hageer Stall Al-Awabi اﻟﻌﻮاﺑﻲ ﺳﺘﺎل اﻟﻬﺠﻴﺮ ﺳﻤﺎﺋﻞ اﻟﺤﻤﺮاء 2 2 2 2 3 آﻮي Kuwi 2.5 2.5 2.5 2 2 اﻟﻐﺮاب Al-Ghurab 2 2 2.5 2 2 اﻻدم Al-Adam Athars Al-Kawkabain 3 2 2 2 2 اﻟﻜﻮآﺒﻴﻦ 2 2 2 2 2 اﻟﺜﺮیﺎ Al-Thuraiya 2.5 2.5 2.5 2 2 اﻟﺠﻨﺐ Al-Ganb

73 III. Compression between meridian (Zawali) timing and sunset (Ghoroobi) timing As mentioned previously, in most aflaj of Oman the day is divided into nighttime badda and daytime badda, where each badda equals to 24 athars, as shown in Fig. 3.4.1. As a rule, the daytime badda starts at sunrise and ends at sunset, where the nighttime badda starts at sunset and ends at sunrise. After the modern watch became available for farmers in the 20th century, farmers start gradually to check the time using these watches, and they came to fully depend on these watches in some aflaj. When the modern watch introduced to Oman, the timing system, which was or sunset timing. In this timing system the farmers (ﻏﺮوﺑﻲ) used, is called Ghoroobi set the watch to12:00 at sunset everyday. The watch is adjusted everyday according to the change of the occurrence of the sunset, where as in the conventional meridian in Oman), sunset takes place around 18:00 in northern (زواﻟﻲ) timing, (called Zawali Oman, depending on the seasons. Accordingly in the Zawali system, midday and midnight takes place at 12:00. Starting from the late 1960s and early 1970s, farmers are gradually replacing the Ghoroobi system by the meridian system, Zawali. Farmers adjusted the daytime cycle to the water-share cycle as illustrated in Fig. 3.4.6 for Ghoroobi timing and Fig. 3.4.7 for Zawali timing. Fig. 3.4.8, illustrates the annual difference between using traditional sundial and stars, Ghoroobi watch and Zawali in the four seasons. In Table 3.4.8, 17 aflaj are listed with information on the type of the falaj, estimated size of the falaj, length of dawran and the method of irrigation scheduling. In all the four ghaili-type aflaj, farmers use modern watch. In two of them they use Ghoroobi timing and in the other two they use Zawali timing. In the daudi aflaj, it looks that farmers are more adhere to the sundial and stars system. We can also recognize from the table that only the small sized aflaj use tank and scale method; distributing the water by volume basis.

74 Table 3.4.8 Methods of irrigations timing in some aflaj of Oman.

Estimated Dawran No Falaj Location (GPS) Type Timing falaj size (days) 1* Al-Farsakhi N23º18´-E57º 59´ Ghaili Medium 8 Zawali watch 2 Al-Mahyul N23º34´-E56º 38´ Ghaili Medium 7 Zawali watch 3 Dahir N23º38´-E56º 39´ Ghaili Medium 10 Ghoroobi watch 4 Mijzi N23º32´-E56º 41´ Ghaili Medium 7 Ghoroobi watch By badda, 5 Al-Muhaidith N23º17´-E56º 41´ Daudi Small 10 estimated time 6 Al-Hayyal N23º25´-E56º 44´ Daudi Medium 7 Sundial and stars 7* Al-Muraifa N23º18´-E57º 59´ Daudi Medium 9 Sundial and stars 8 An Nujaid N23º19´-E56º 36´ Daudi Medium 10 Zawali watch 9 Ad Dariz N23º19´-E56º 36´ Daudi Large 19 Mixed 10 Al-Awabi N23º18´-E57º 31´ Daudi Large 15 Zawali watch 11* Al-Haily N23º17´-E57º 58´ Daudi Large 18 Sundial and stars 12* Al-Hamra N23º07´-E57º 17´ Daudi Large 8 Sundial and stars 13 Stall N23º13´-E57º 33´ Daudi Large 14 Sundial and stars 14 Al Air N23º19´-E57º 31´ Aini Small 7 Tank and scale 15 Al-Hageer N23º12´-E57º 30´ Aini Medium 7 Sundial and stars 16 Al-Kasfa N23º24´-E57º´ 25 Aini Large 11 Sundial and stars 17* Thuqb N23º11´-E57º 33´ Aini Small 8 Tank and scale * Some of the data for aflaj No 1,7,11,12,and 17 are compiled from different publications

Fig. 3.4.6 Sunset (ghoroobi) timing for water-share divisions.

Fig. 3.4.7 Meridian (zawali) timing for water-share divisions.

Summer Spring and Autumn Winter

Sunrise Sunset Sunrise Sunset

Sunrise Sunset

Day Badda Sunset Sunset Night Badda Sunset

Day Badda Day Badda 6AM 6AM 6AM Night Badda Night Badda

Fig. 3.4.8 Different in “sundial and stars” (traditional) timing, ghoroobi timing and zawali timing in aflaj.

77 3.5 Summary Several methods are adapted for distributing water among farmers of aflaj. The widest spread method uses a water share time unit called athar. In this method, the irrigation rotation, dawran, is divided to several days (normally 4 to 20 days). Each full day is divided into two baddas, daytime badda and nighttime badda. Each day should have 48 athars, so each badda will have 24 athars. Therefore, athar is theoretically equal to 30 minutes. As a rule, in the traditional scheduling method, the daytime badda starts at sunrise and ends at sunset, where the nighttime badda starts at sunset and ends at sunrise. Farmers were using several methods to verify the water share on the field, like estimating time or using the complex sundial and stars system. After the modern watch became available for farmers in the last century, they start gradually to check the time using these watches, and they came to fully depend on these watches in some aflaj systems, by adapting first the Ghoroobi timing and then the Zawali timing. The terminology and nomenclature of star system for irrigation and units for water share is too complicated and unorganized, as well its knowledge is disappearing. The traditional way of irrigation scheduling is differ from one falaj system to another. Even thought in most of the aflaj, farmers use athars as a standard unit, the way of inspecting the length of each athar is varied among different aflaj. Farmers go through several steps to transfer from using traditional irrigation timing to modern watch.

78 References: Abdel Rahman, Omezzine, A., 1996. Aflaj Water Resources Management: Tradable Water Rights to Improve Irrigation Productivity in Oman, Water International, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 70-75. ,(Explanation on some Aflaj of Oman) اﻟﺒﻴﺎن ﻓﻲ ﺑﻌﺾ اﻓﻼج ﻋُﻤﺎن .Al-Abri, Bader, undated (in Arabic), Golden Printing Press, Muscat, Oman.

Al-Ghafri, Abdullah, 2002. Traditional Water Distribution in Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman, Grant number: HQ-2001-SSA-O-00073, Final Report, The United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan.

Al-Ghafri, Abdullah; Inoue, Takashi and Nagasawa, Tetuaki, 2000b. Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman, The Way of Water Distribution In the proceedings of The XIV Memorial CIGR World Congress 2000, in Tsukuba, Japan, November 28- December1, 2000.

Al-Ghafri, Abdullah; Inoue, Takashi and Nagasawa, Tetuaki, 2003. Daudi Aflaj: the Qanats of Oman, in the proceedings of the Third Symposium on Xinjang Uyghur Reserches, Chiba University, Japan, November 7, 2003, pp. 29-36.

Al-Ghafri, Abdullah; Norman, W. Ray; Inoue, Takashi and Nagasawa, Tetuaki, 2000a. Traditional Irrigation Scheduling in Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman, Case Study of Falaj Al-Hageer, Northern Oman. In the proceedings of The First International Symposium on Qanat, Volume IV (English Papers), held in Yazd, Iran, May 8-11, 2000, pp. 37-43.

Aflaj System in Oman) ﻥﻈﺎم اﻻﻓﻼج ﻓﻲ ﻋُﻤﺎن و دورﻩ ﻓﻲ اﻟﺘﻨﻤﻴﺔ .Al-Hajri, Mohammed, 1998 and its role in the Development), (in Arabic), first edition.

Al-Marshudi, Ahmed, 1995. Operation of the Aflaj System, in Traditional Agriculture and Fishing in the Sultanate of Oman, Sultan Qaboos Univerity, SQU, Modern Color Printers, Legal Deposit No. 251/95, pp. 5-10.

Al-Marshudi, Ahmed, 2000. Aflaj Water Resources Management: Operation and Improvement of the Aflaj Systems in Oman, In the proceedings of The First International Symposium on Qanat, Volume IV (English Papers), held in Yazd, Iran, May 8-11m 2000.

79 ﺕﻨﻈﻴﻢ و إدارة اﻻﻓﻼج ﻓﻲ ﺳﻠﻄﻨﺔ .Al-Saleemi, Mahfoodh and Abdel Fattah, Nabeel, 1997 Administration and Organization of Aflaj in the Sultanate of) ﻋﻤﺎن, "دراﺳﺔ ﺕﺤﻠﻴﻠﻴﺔ" Oman, Analytical Study) (in Arabic), Institute of Public Administration, Oman.

,2nd ed, Dar Al-Amwag, Beirut, Lebanon ( اﻟﻤﻌﺠﻢ اﻟﻮﺳﻴﻂ) .Al-Waseet, Al-Mugam, 1990 pp. 225. Barriere, Paul, 1993. Falaj Daris in Nizwa - The present Situation – Orientation for the Future, Ministry of Agriculture, Oman. Bonine, Michael, 1989. Qanats, Field Systems and Morphology: Rectangularity on the Iranian Plateau, in, Beaumont, P., Bonine, M., and McLachlan, K., Qanat, Kariz and Khattara: Traditional Water Systems in Middle East and North Africa, The Middle East Center, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK. Honari, Morteza, 1989. Qanats and Human Ecosystems in Iran, in, Beaumont, P., Bonine, M., and McLachlan, K., Qanat, Kariz and Khattara: Traditional Water Systems in Middle East and North Africa, The Middle East Center, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK. Norman, W. Ray; Shayya, Walid H. and Al-Ghafri, Abdullah, 1998a. Irrigation Water Costs and Management Practices Among Farms in Northern Oman, Journal of Scientific Research, Agricultural Sciences, Vol.3, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, pp. 1-8.

Norman, W. Ray; Shayya, Walid H.; Al-Ghafri, Abdullah and McCann, Ian R., 1998b. Aflaj Irrigation and On-farm Water Management in Northern Oman, Irrigation and Drainage Systems 12, pp. 35-38.

Norman, W. Ray; Al-Ghafri, Abdullah and Shayya, Walid H., 2001. Water Use Performance and Comparative Costs Among Surface and Traditional Irrigation Systems in Northern Oman, in Water in the Arabian Peninsula: Problems and Policies. K. Mahdi (Ed). Ithaca Press, Reading, UK. Travers Morgan (Oman) LTD, 1993. Study of a Pilot Project for Water Distribution Improvement in Lands Irrigated by Aflaj, Case Study, (Phase II), Final, Ministry Of Agriculture and Fisheries, The Sultanate of Oman. Wahby, Hassan and Al-Harthi, Saud, 1995. General Controlled Irrigation Systems for Optimum Use of Water in falaj Keed at Bahla, Proceedings of Sultanate of

80 Oman International Conference on Water Resource Management in Arid Countries, pp. 9-15, Ministry of Water Resources, Oman. Wilkinson, J.C., 1977. Water and Tribal Settlement in Southeast Arabia: a Study of the Aflaj of Oman, Oxford, Clarendon Press.

81 CHAPTER 4 Equitability of Aflaj Traditional Water Distribution 4.1 Introduction Traditionally, farmers have used sundials in the daytime, and stars at nighttime for justifying water shares on the field. Due to the change of the day and the night lengths around the year, the practical length of each athar is varied. As well, the flow rate in aflaj is fluctuating. Farmers adapted many ways to insure fairness in distributing water among them. On this chapter, the equitability on aflaj water distribution will be discussed. Same methodology with chapter 3 was used here. Chapter 4 will illustrate various reactions of farmers in aflaj to make equitable distribution of water right among them. It includes a case study to make deeper understanding of traditional water management in aflaj.

4.2 Solution for the change of athars’ length In the traditional sundial and star method, because of the variation of the length of day and night throughout the year, farmers may have more or less amount of water per athar. The daytime and nighttime are equally divided to 24 athars each. In the location of Oman in the northern hemisphere of the earth, the value of athar’s length varied naturally ± 4.5 to 5 min from the mean, according to the seasonal change in the day and the night lengths around the year (Wilkinson, 1974). Due to the use of non- precise devices in timing irrigation, like sundial and stars, the variation is much higher. For example, athar’s length is varied in falaj al-Hageer from less than the half of the theoretical length of the athar to more than the double. Al-Shaqsi (1996) reported a big variation in athars length in falaj al-Kasfah of ar-Rustaq. In winter, farmers irrigating at nighttime will receive more water than farmers irrigating in daytime and vice versa for summer. At night, farmers use stars for timing irrigation. However they estimate the length of time between stars. Some two stars may have two athars of the length; however, the actual time will be less or more than one hour. Farmers tried to solve this problem by having another rotation within the dawran. It is a day-night rotation. In this rotation farmers keep shifting the irrigation in daytime or nighttime; as well they are also changing their order in the same badda. As an example, in falaj al-Hageer, farmers with shares less than 24 athars will have

82 their water at night badda or day badda only. For instance, during summer if a farmer irrigates at nighttime and loses some water, he will gain more in the following dawran, when irrigating during the daytime. In Fig. 4.2.1, farmers D and E are irrigating in one badda and farmers F and G in the other one. In this rotation farmers at same badda rotate the order between them each dawran, and both groups (D+E and F+G), rotate the irrigation at daytime or nighttime, (Al-Ghafri, et al, 2000, 2003). In central Oman some aflaj adapted different method to automatically make the farmers receive their water alternately night and day. They design the dawran with an odd number of baddas (Wilkinson, 1977). For example, the dawran of falaj Daris at Nizwa is equal to 8.5 days (Travers Morgan, 1993) that is equal to 17 baddas.

Fig. 4.2.1 Rotation of farmers order in falaj al-Hageer.

84 4.3 Reaction of farmers on flow rate fluctuations The flow rate of aflaj is changing due to hydrological factors, however the water share for each farmer is fixed. Due to this fact, farmers do not receive the same volume of water all the time. Farmers act against the variations of falaj flow rate by dividing the falaj into smaller streams, re-adjusting the dawran or store the falaj water in a big tank before irrigating. In the drought time, the main concern of farmers is to keep their permanents crops, such as date and lime trees, survived until the falaj flow rose again.

I. Control the flow rate and the duration of dawran In large aflaj systems, the stream of the main canal is divided into several sub- streams depending on the size of the falaj and its flow rate. Farmers can irrigate from one stream or more at once. In dry years, farmers cut the number of sub-streams depending on the reduction in the main canal flow rate. The process of equally and the place ( ﻣﻐﺎﻳﺰة) dividing the main flow of the falaj is called locally moghayzah Al-Abri, undated). From the) (ﺷﺮﻳﻌﺔ) where this process is proceeds is called shariah description of Al-Abri (undated) we can summarize this process in the following equation: The length of irrigation time (T) in athars a farmer will receive: T = t · N· n-1 t = Original number of athars owned by a farmer. N = Number of equal sub-streams of the falaj. n = Number of equally divided sub-streams from the main canal of the falaj which farmer use simultaneously (see appendix 4.3 for more explanation). In this division the farmer who irrigate using the main flow will receive the same amount of water if he irrigate from one or more of sub-canals. The amount of flow in each sub-canal is set to be equal. An example of this is shown in Fig.4.3.1; the left photo is of falaj al-Hamra. In this falaj the main stream is divided to two sub-streams (A and B), A:B = 1:1 so if a farmer has a water right from the main stream of x athars he will get 2x if he irrigate only using stream A or stream B. The right photo is of falaj Birkat al-Mouz. The main stream is divided to 3 divisions (A1, A2 and B), then A1 and A2 are joined to form one stream, A. In this division, A:B = 2:1 so if a farmer have an x athars from the main stream and he only

85 irrigate from stream B he will get 3x athars, but if he only irrigate from stream A, he will get 3/2x athars. Big aflaj like falaj Daris (Nizwa) may be divided up to 10 streams. Aflaj with stable flow usually are divided permanently to major sub-streams. Each stream will be devoted to a specific land area. The dawran is not fixed for all the falaj but each major stream may have it’s own dawran. Like in falaj al-Dariz, Ibri, the main stream is divided to two sub-streams in high flow condition. In one of these streams the dawran is 9 days. But in the other stream the dawran is 10 days. Probably, the reason is because the land that irrigated by the stream of the shorter dawran has a lighter soil than the one of longer dawran. So, in this example, each stream is treated as a separate falaj system. In the time of drought, the falaj will be joined in one stream only and will be altered between the two in 19 days (further explanation in Chapter 5). During the drought of the early 1980s this solution was adapted, and it was noticed that the farms that located in the stream of a short dawran damaged more than the farms of the other branch. That was an indication of the different in type of soil in this village. In falaj al-Ghayzayn, the falaj is divided into two streams in years of normal flow arte Farmers use both streams at same time. The rotation of irrigation, dawran, of this falaj is 7 days. In time of drought, farmers irrigate from one stream only at any one time. In this case, they divert the water to one of the two canals every 7 days; hence the dawran is doubled from 7 days to 14 days. In very low flow rate the dawran is extended to 28 days (Birks, 1977). Wilkinson, J.C. (1977) reported that the dawran is altered annually in some aflaj to meet the changing requirements of summer and winter irrigation. He gave an example of one falaj of Ibri and one falaj of Buraimi. The dawran in these aflaj changed from four to five days, and ten to fourteen days, respectively.

86 A A B

A1 A2 B

Main canal

Fig. 4.3.1 Flow division in falaj al-Hamra (left) and falaj Birkat al-Mouz (right), (Photos: November 2000 (left), June 1996 (right)).

87 II. Reverse the order of irrigation In falaj al-Farsakhi, at Samail, farmers adapted simpler method to insure fair distribution of water share. The falaj water rights are divided to 8 days. They set every Friday for the maqouda, allocated for the falaj benefits, and the other 7 days for In the 7 days each day is divided . (ردة) individual owners. Each day is called raddah between groups of owners, from 4 to 8 owners in each group. So, the renting rotation is every one-week but the dawran is every 8 days. This group always irrigating at same day, however, the order of irrigation is changed in every dawran. To simplify it, let us name these groups, A, B, C, D, E, F and G. To see how it rotate; see Table 4.3.1. Farmers irrigate all lands, which belong to each group at once in one full day in a certain order. This order is reversed in the following dawran. For ’is divided in this falaj to six riba , (ردّة) water-renting purpose, the full day, raddah .each riba’ is between 2 and 6 hours in length, as in Table 4.3.2 ,(رﺑﻌﺔ) To see how it works, Fig. 4.3.2 shows 5 farms irrigated as a one group. Let assume that group is group A. Starting from any given dawran, the farmers will start irrigating from farm A1 to farm A5. They will irrigate farm A1. After irrigate the entire farm, then they move to farm A2 until farm A5. In the next dawran they will start from farm A5 and irrigate it completely then move to farm A4 and so on, until farm A1. In the next dawran they will start from A1 again.

88 Table 4.3.1 Irrigation schedule of falaj al-Farsakhi, Samail, 1st Dawran (Created after Al-Saleemi and Nabeel, 1997). ردّةDawran Day and date Raddah ﻣﻘﻌﻮدةFriday 27.9.1996 Maqouda Saturday 28.9.1996 A Sunday 29.9.1996 B Monday 30.9.1996 C 1 Tuesday 1.10.1996 D Wednesday 2.10.1996 E Thursday 3.10.1996 F Friday 4.10.1996 Maqouda Saturday 5.10.1996 G Sunday 6.10.1996 A Monday 7.10.1996 B Tuesday 8.10.1996 C 2 Wednesday 9.10.1996 D Thursday 10.10.1996 E Friday 11.10.1996 Maqouda Saturday 12.10.1996 F Sunday 13.10.1996 G Monday 14.10.1996 A Tuesday 15.10.1996 B Wednesday 16.10.1996 C 3 Thursday 17.10.1996 D Friday 18.10.1996 Maqouda Saturday 19.10.1996 E Sunday 20.10.1996 F

89 Table 4.3.2 Special divisions of time for irrigation in falaj al-Farsakhi (riba’), Samail (Created after Al-Saleemi and Nabeel, 1997). Time Total time رﺑﻌﺔ ’No Riba from to (Hours) pm 9:00 pm 4.75 4:15 اﻟﺒﺪوة Al-Badwah 1 pm 3 :00 am 6.00 9:00 اﻟﻠﻴﻞ Al-lail 2 am 7:00 am 4.00 3:00 اﻷذان Al-Athaan 3 am 11:00 am 4.00 7:00 ﻇﻞ Dhill 66 4 am 2:00 pm 3.00 11:00 اﻟﻨﺼﻒ Al-Nisf 5 pm 4:15 pm 2.25 2:00 اﻷﺧﻴﺮAl-Aakhir 6

Falaj

A1 A2 A3 A4 A5

Fig. 4.3.2 Irrigation method of falaj al-Farsakhi in Samail (Created from text by Al-Saleemi and Nabeel, 1997).

91 III. Storing irrigation water It is a common practice in small aflaj systems that farmers store the falaj water in a big tank for long time then, they control the flow rate for irrigation depending on time desired to irrigate. For example, in falaj al-Air (small aini falaj), every day farmers store the water in big tank at nighttime then they irrigate at daytime. In some of aflaj, the village has one or more big tanks that made of concrete to store falaj water during the time of low flow rate (Fig. 4.3.3). The time for storing the water is included in the share time that farmers have. This method reduces the time required for irrigation and increases the efficiency. During this process, if a farmer could not use all the stored water in the tank before the start of irrigation of the next farmer, his remained water will be allocated to the succeeding farmer.

Normal flow Water Tank Temporary low flow

From the falaj Source To the fields

Fig. 4.3.3 Flow rate control in aflaj by storing water in tanks.

93 4.4 Case study of falaj al-Hageer Falaj al-Hageer is located in Wadi Bani Kharous, al-Awabi, Northern Oman, N 23º 12’- E 57º 30’(Fig. 3.2.4). The village is about one hour and half by car from the capital Muscat. This village is sited in the western foot of jabal al-AKhdar (Fig. 4.4.2). Fig 4.4.2). A) (ﻋﻴﻦ) The source of falaj al-Hageer is a mountain spring, ain narrow channel, made of local cement, conveys the water to the village. During periods of wet months, another small water spring is added to the system. The age of the village is more than 1,500 years ago, since, there is an ancient Persian ruins on the site. The history of Persian settlements in the western side of jabal al-Akhdar mountains is pre-Islamic. Most of the soil of al-Hageer can be classified as loam or sandy loam.

94 Southern Mountain New settlements

Temporary Abounded awabi

Flow direction Seasonal crops (Seasonal awabi) Permanent crops (Date palm) Old village North

Eastern Mountain

Fig. 4.4.1 Photo of the village of al-Hageer (Photo: April 1997).

95 Al- Hageer اﻟﻬﺠﻴﺮ N23º 12´-E57º 30´

Location of the sundial and stars observation

0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 Km

Spring ﻋﻴﻦ

Fig. 4.4.2 Map of falaj al-Hageer.

96 I. Irrigation schedule In this falaj the dawran is divided to 7 days that is equal to 14 baddas or 336 so each riba’ is equal to 6 ,(رﺑﻌﺔ) ’athars. Each badda is divided to 4 quarters, riba athars. Table 4.4.1 shows a complete schedule of irrigation for falaj al-Hageer including total number of farmers in each day, farmers’ code, their order in each day and each badda and their owned athars. In the table owned athars are in bold. This table shows the order of farmer as of January 15, 1996 (Monday) to January 21, 1996, (Sunday). Fifteen athars of the total are allocated for the organization, mainly for the falaj and mosque service (Wednesday, code 16). The rest of the athars are distributed among the falaj owners. The total number of owners is 20. The water share distribution in aflaj system is not systematic, the case of falaj al-Hageer demonstrate this fact. In al-Hageer, the water share is varied from 2 athars (code 9) to 48 athars (code 18) per farmer. In al-Hageer a farmer may have his water in more than one day in the dawran. For example, farmer of 24 athars has 14 athars on every Friday and 10 athars on every Sunday (code 7). Also, a farmer may have water in the same day but in separate badda, for example, a farmer on Monday has total of 11 athars, 4 athars in one badda and 7 athars in the other badda (code 10). Farmers do not have more than 24 athars in a single irrigation. So, if a farmer has more than 24 athars in one day, he will have a full badda and the remained athars will be in the other one. An example of that is on Friday. A farmer has 34 athars, 24 in one badda and 10 in the other one (code 21).

97 Table 4.4.1 Irrigation Schedule of falaj al-Hageer for the period 15 to 21 January, 1996.

Day Number of separate Farmers’ code and owned athars (1996) irrigations Badda 1 Badda 2 Codes 15.Jan 11 9 10 8 13 10 12 7 (Mon) Athars 8 2 4 10 8 7 9 Codes 16.Jan 14 15 4 2 1 5 (Tue) Athars 9 15 14 3 7 Codes 17.Jan 18 16 17 4 (Wed) Athars 24 8 7 9 Codes 18.Jan 19 20 18 4 (Thu) Athars 14 10 22 2 Codes 19.Jan 21 7 21 3 (Fri) Athars 10 14 24 Codes 20.Jan 1 2 3 3 (Sat) Athars 11 13 24 Codes 21.Jan 4 5 6 7 4 (Sun) Athars 24 5 9 10

98 II. Daytime irrigation timing Farmers in al-Hageer use the shadow of the village mosque and its fence as a sundial for timing irrigation instead of the sundial with stick. They also include the shadow of the eastern mountain in the late athars of the daytime badda. The mosque door is in the wall, which facing the east (Fig. 4.4.3 and Fig. 4.4.4). Daytime badda starts when the sun hits the top of the mosque (sunrise) in the morning, and end at the sunset. This system has three lamads; two lamads are used as a single lamad and the third one is an adjusting lamad for the sun tilt. The first lamad uses the shadow of the mosque’s fence. This fence is lined nearly to north-south direction, making it in “parallel” to the wall of the mosque, which has the door. This lamad is divided into 9 athars. Athar number 10 finishes when the shadow of the mosque wall covers the Fig. 4.4.5). The second lamad extends) (أم اﻟﺮز) base of the mosque door, um a’rruz from the base of the door to the fence. This lamad is divided into 10 athars. To complete one badda, there are 3 athars marked on the fence wall and 2 athars counted between the disappearance of the sun from the top of the mosque until the shadow covers the eastern mountains, sunset. The third lamad is used for correcting the change of the sun tilt throughout the year. Farmers use this lamad, mainly, in the summer time. Sometimes, farmers extend the marks of athars by drawing line between lamad 1 and lamad 2 on the ground vertical to the lamad starting from the athar’s stone. The three lamads are marked for half an athar as the minimum division. When the daytime irrigation scheduling shifted from lamad 1 to lamad 2, farmers loose some athars depending on the day in the year. The worst case is in winter when farmers loose 4 athars. As an example of winter case, due to the configuration of al-Hageer sundial, farmers who have their share athars which come between the athar number 6 and 10 on the first lamad, will lose all their water share between these two athars, which quite unusual. For example, if a farmer has 7 athars starting from the beginning of the day badda, he will lose the last athar. A farmer after him will lose 3 athars. Starting from sunrise, farmers with share time of more than 10 athars will lose 4 athars from their shares. For example, if a farmer has 12 athars he will use 6 athars in the first lamad and 2 athars in the second lamad. This is because the shadow of the mosque covers the base of the door at same time when it disappears from stone number 6 on the first lamad (Fig. 4.4.6). The reason is because

99 the mosque wall and the fence are not perfectly parallel. In the summertime there is no loss of water due to the shifting from lamad 1 to lamad 2, however, farmers may lose ½ athar when they extend a line from the original stone. There are two reasons for this problem. First, in this sundial farmer’s use shadows of walls instead of a stick, which their shadows sometimes cover more than one stone simultaneously. Second, there are no adjusting lamads for seasonal tilt of sun, except partially lamad 3 is used for about half of the daytime badda. Logically, another two lines should correct each of the two lamads. A typical sundial has three lamads; one for summer, one for winter and one for spring and autumn (See chapter 3, section 3.4).

100 Eastern Mountain

The falaj canal The sundial components from the source Fig 4.4.3 The sundial location of falaj al-Hageer, (Photo: 1996).

101 N Mosque 10

Lamad 2

Door

Lamad 3 High Mountain (Adjustment)

1 6 9

Lamad 1

Fence

Figure 4.4.4 Sketch of the Sundial of falaj al-Hageer (top view, not to scale).

102 Mosque door

Mosque

North

Lamad 2 Athar 10, “um a’rruz” Fig. 4.4.5 The location of athar 10 in Lamad 2 (Photo: 3 August 1995).

Lamad 1

North Athar No. 6

The fence

Fig. 4.4.6 The location of athar 6 in lamad 1 (Photo: 3 August, 1995).

103 III. Nighttime irrigation timing During the research at al-Hageer, it was found that, timing system in al-Hageer is more complicated than the normal timing systems in other aflaj of Oman. It includes the shadow of constructions and its surrounding environment. This leads to no clear-cut start or end of each badda. It also effect on the length of each athar. Farmers did not remember when this system started. The fact that the direct sunlight period is shorter in al-Hageer because high mountains surround the village, causes the actual average length of athars in the daytime badda is always less than 30 minute. Also, the length of some athars can be even equal to 0 minute, as explained afterward. Beside that, the actual length of each athar in the daytime varies more or less than 30 minutes, because 24 athars are allotted to each badda, and the daytime and nighttime lengths are varied throughout the year. In winter, the 24 athars of daytime badda are much shorter than the 24 athars of nighttime badda. If farmers use the modern watch, all this problems will be avoided. In al-Hageer, nighttime badda starts from the sunset and it ends when the sun hits the top of the mosque in the morning. One athar is counted from sunset to the Farmers mach the first prayer call to the rise of .(أذان) first call of night prayer, athaan a particular star from the east. This star is one of the al-Hageer’s 25 scheduling stars (Table 4.4.2). Depending on the day in the year, different stars begin the timing. Approximately, half of these stars are used daily. Twenty athars are allocated for star timing. To complete the nighttime badda, 3 athars are counted from the rise of the last star in the morning until sun hits the top of the mosque. In cloudy weather, if clouds cover the east, farmers use the setting of other stars in the west, which synchronize with the rising of the irrigation set of stars. Star system is too complicated for young farmers. A farmer has to remember all stars names (principals and dividers), the time-share for each star(s), its shape, color, brightness, the locations where it rises and sets with details of topography (skyline). As well, it is very important to have in mind the exact order of principal stars and dividers with details of surrounding stars. In falaj al-Hageer, only few old people could remember these details. If a conflict between farmers on star timing occurs, farmers refer to the wakil. He is the reference person of the falaj water distribution and all water and land shares. Due to these problems, farmers use many different solutions to be fair in distributing water. These solutions are discussed in the next section.

104 Table 4.4.2 Irrigation Star System of falaj al-Hageer.

No Name of star(s) Number of athars

2 آﻮي Kuwi 1 2 اﻟﻤﻨﺼﻒ al-Munsif 2 1.5 اﻟﻄﺎﻳﺮ al-Tayer 3 2.5 اﻟﻐﺮاب al-Ghurab 4 2.5 اﻻدم al-Adam 5 2 اﻟﺼّﺎرة اﻻوﻟﻰ al-Saarrah al Oula 6 2 اﻟﺼّﺎرة اﻟﻮﺳﻄﻰ al-Saarrah al Wosta 7 1 اﻻﺧﻠﻊ ’al-Akhla 8 1 اﻟﻌﺮش al-Arsh 9 2 اﻟﻜﻮآﺒﻴﻦ al-Kawkabain 10 2 اﻟﻔﺘﺢ al- Fateh 11 2 اﻟﺜﺮﻳﺎ al-Thuraiya 12 3 اﻟﺪﺑﺮان al-Dubran 13 3 اﻟﻴﻤﻴﻦ al-Ymeen 14 1 اﻟﺸﻌﺮة اﻟﺒﻴﻀﺎ al-Shara’ al Beedha 15 2.5 اﻟﺸﻌﺮة اﻟﺤﻤﺮا al-Shara’ al Hamra 16 2.5 اﻟﺠﻨﺐ al-Ganb 17 2 اﻟﻀﺮاع اﻻول al-Dhira’ al O’wal 18 1.5 اﻟﻀﺮاع اﻻﺧﻴﺮ al-Dhira’ al Akheer 19 2 اﻟﻔﺮﻓﺮة al-Farfarah 20 2 اﻟﻤﻮاﺙﻴﺐ al-Mawatheeb 21 2 ﺑﻮ ﺝﺒّﺎن Bu Gabban 22 2 اﻟﻐﻔﺮ اﻻول al-Ghafar al A’wal 23 1 اﻟﻐﻔﺮ اﻻﺧﻴﺮ al-Ghafar al Akheer 24 2.5 اﻟﻌﻘﺮب al-Aqrab 25 2 آﻮي Kuwi 1

105 IV. Solutions for the change of athars length a) Nighttime addition At nighttime badda, farmers add 8 or 12 qiyases (1 qiyas equals to 1/24 athar) for each athar occurs in the second and third riba’ (rabi) (that is equal to 12 athars) of nighttime badda (Fig. 4.4.7). This addition is not applied for those farmers who have 24 athars as a complete badda at nighttime. So the increment is applied only for farmers with less than 24 athars in the nighttime badda. This increment is equal to 4 or 6 athars per nighttime badda. They decide this addition according to a special calendar, perhaps a local modification of the Persian In (روزﻥﺎﻣﻪ.) calendar “Roznameh”. Wilkinson (1977) explains more about Roznameh al-Hageer, farmers divide the year to 4 periods; three periods of 100 days each and the last period of the remaining 65 or 66 days. The first 100 days they call them miyat meaning the winter 100 days, the second 100 days they call them , (ﻣﻴّﺔ اﻟﺸﺘﺎ) al shita meaning the summer 100 days and the third period called , (ﻣﻴّﺔ اﻟﺼﻴﻒ)miyat al saif meaning the 100 days of date harvesting. The remained (ﻣﻴّﺔ اﻟﻘﻴﺾ)miyat al qayzh days are not important for their agricultural activities; this why they call it khab al- .which means it is not counted (ﺧﺐ اﻟﺤﺴﺒﺔ),hisbah They start the winter addition from the end of the third 100 days. The change to the summer addition will be after 60 days of the second 100 days, miyat al saif. So the winter addition will span over a period of 225 days and the summer addition on 140 days (Fig. 4.4.8). In winter they add 12 qiyas per athar, which is equal to total of 6 athars per night badda. In summer they add 8 qiyas per athar meaning a total addition of 4 athars per night badda. Farmers do adding time to the standard share all year round, due to the fact that al-Hageer is located between mountains, making the practical daytime is much shorter than nighttime all round the year. It is clear that the reason for the winter addition to be longer than the summer addition is that farmers try to compensate the short direct sunshine of al-Hageer. b) Rotation of farmers order The more interesting solution is the change of the order of irrigation between farmers at the same day and same badda. Farmers keep shifting between irrigating at daytime badda or nighttime badda as well changing their order within the same badda. For example, Table 4.4.3 shows the schedule of Saturday, in which three farmers are irrigating. Farmer A (code 3 in Table 4.4.1) has 24 athars, B (code 1) has

106 11 athars and C (code 2) has 13 athars. They change the rotation in each dawran. In this arrangement the total number of dawrans to complete one rotation is equal to 4 dawrans. During summer, if a farmer irrigates at nighttime and loses some water, he will gain more in the following week, when irrigating during the daytime. Fig. 4.4.9 shows an imagination of this rotation. Another example is the rotation of Thursday (Table 4.4.4), farmers D, E, F and G have 14, 10, 2, and 22 athars respectively (codes 19 (D), 20 (E), 18 (F) and 18 (G) in Table 4.4.1). Farmers D and E are irrigating in one badda and farmers E and F in the other one. In this rotation farmers at same badda rotate the order between them each week, and both groups (D+E and F+G), rotate the irrigation at daytime or nighttime. Note that farmer code 18 has separate water share, this means that he own 2 separate lands (in tow different locations), so each water share will be treated independently (Table 4.4.1). Fig. 4.2.1 of section 4.2 is an imaginary diagram of this rotation. The length of the rotation of farmers depends on the number of farmers in the full day and in each badda. The more farmers to have there share at same full day or same badda, the longer the rotation. The longest and most complex rotation in al- Hageer is of Monday, where there are 7 farmers irrigating in the same day, 4 farmers in one badda ((code 11 (8 athars), code 9 (2 athars), code 10 (4 athars) and code 8 (10 athars)) and 3 farmers in the other badda ((code 13 (8 athars), code 10 (7 athars) and code 12 (9 athars)). Why do farmers use this complex method of scheduling? This question was asked during the interviews. Farmers answered that they inherit the systems from their grandfathers. Farmers did not remember when this system started. Because the directions of lamads are not fixed perfectly east west beside that there are no adjusting lamads, perhaps the unusual sundial was an emergency solution. For example, it was probable that a flood washed away the original sundial.

V. Solution for flow rate fluctuations In most days of the year, farmers store their water in tanks made of local .because of the flow rate of falaj al-Hageer is very small , (ﺹﺎروج) cement, sarooj There are three tanks in al-Hageer, one located in the upper stream of the village, near the lamad (the principal tank Fig 4.4.10), and two tanks located downstream. These tanks have a controlled opening to adjust the outgoing water flow so the tank should

107 be emptied before the end of the water share of the irrigator. They are marked to have equivalent amount of water that is necessary to irrigate farms. Farmers use half of their water share to fill the tank and in the other half they irrigate. They still use their entire water share. For example, if a farmer has 8 athars, he uses 4 athars to fill the tank and he opens the tank in the remaining 4 athars, combining the flow from the tank and the direct falaj flow. This will increase the flow rate that goes to the irrigated land, that is means less time to be spend on irrigation. Increasing the flow rate is good practice as it minimizes the water lose in canals. If this farmer uses the principal tank and he fails to empty this tank before the end of his share, the farmer just after him will combine the remaining water to his share. However, after rain, the flow rate of the falaj will rise up. In this case, farmers irrigate directly from the falaj without storing water (Fig. 4.4.11).

108 Table 4.4.3 Farmers rotation, Saturday group (06.April.1996 to 04.May.1996).

Week Farmers Irrigation Athars

B D 11 1 C D 13 A N 24

A D 24 2 B N 11 C N 13

C D 13 3 B D 11 A N 24

A D 24 4 C N 13 B N 11

B D 11 5 C D 13 A N 24 D: Daytime badda, N: Nighttime badda

109 Table 4.4.4 Farmers rotation, Thursday group (04.April.1996 to 03.May.1996), see also Fig. 4.2.1. Week Farmers Irrigation Athars D D 14 E D 10 1 F N 2 G N 22 G D 22

F D 2 2 E N 10 D N 14 E D 10 D D 14 3 F N 2 G N 22 F D 2 G D 22 4 D N 14 E N 10 D D 14 E D 10 5 F N 2 G N 22 D: Daytime badda, N: Nighttime badda

110

24 Athars 24 Athars Daytime badda Nighttime badda

Sun rise Sun set 12 Athars Sun rise Nighttime addition 6 Athars 1st riba' 2nd riba' 3d riba' 4th riba' 1st riba' 2nd riba' 3d riba' 4th riba'

0 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 Athars

Fig. 4.4.7 Full day divisions and the nighttime addition of falaj al-Hageer.

225 days 0 60 140 days

Winter addition (6 athars) Summer addtion (4 athars) 0 365 days 65 100 100 100

khab al hisbah miyat al shita miyat al saif miyat al qaizh (Winter) (Summer) (Dates harvesting)

Fig. 4.4.8 Athars’ addition schedule of falaj al-Hageer.

111

Sunrise Sunset

Fig. 4.4.9 Changing of farmers order in falaj al-Hageer (Saturday Irrigation).

112

Orifice

To the farms Gate to divert the water to the Path of water in time tank, in time of low flow rate of high flow rate Fig. 4.4.10 The Principal tank of falaj al-Hageer (Photo: October 2000).

Date palm gardens Legend: : Normal flow (Year round) : Flow in spring and winter (Seasonal) : Temporary flow (after high rainfall)

Fields for Sub-tank1 Seasonal crops Fields for Seasonal crops

Sub-tank2 Main tank

From the source

Date palm gardens Date palm gardens

Fig. 4.4.11 Water distribution system of falaj al-Hageer.

113 4.5 Summary Because the practical length of athar and the flow rate of aflaj are changing, there are always a lot of margins of un-accuracy in measuring water shares. In many cases, the watering-cycle does not match with the share-cycle. Farmers adapted many ways to ensure fair distribution of water shares among them. In the traditional sundial and star method, farmers may have more or less water per athar. In winter, farmers irrigating at nighttime will receive more water than farmers irrigating in daytime and vice versa for summer. Farmers solved this problem by having another rotation within the dawran. It was a day-night rotation. Farmers act against the change in falaj flow rate by dividing the falaj into smaller streams, re-adjusting the dawran or store the falaj water in a big tank before irrigating. In case of falaj al-Hageer, dawran is fixed to be 7 days. Farmers still use sundial and stars for irrigation scheduling. Due to the location of al-Hageer and the complexity of the method used in scheduling, the actual number of athars received by a farmer does not match with the owned number of athars, in daily basis. The strong tradition of farmers makes them insist on keeping this difficult method of scheduling. Even though the system is very complicated, farmers tried many ways to make it fair. In the long run, every farmer will rotate irrigating at different times of the day or night, in the same schedule. This will minimize the effect of the variation of athars length. The strong tradition of farmers makes them insist on keeping this difficult method of scheduling.

114 References: ,(Explanation on some Aflaj of Oman) اﻟﺒﻴﺎن ﻓﻲ ﺑﻌﺾ اﻓﻼج ﻋُﻤﺎن .Al-Abri, Bader, undated (in Arabic), Golden Printing Press, Muscat, Oman.

Al-Ghafri, Abdullah; Inoue, Takashi and Nagasawa, Tetuaki, 2003. Irrigation Scheduling of Aflaj of Oman: Methods and its Modernization in UNU Desertification Series No. 5; Edited by: Zafar Adeel, Sustainable Management of Marginal dry lands, pp. 147-166. Al-Ghafri, Abdullah; Norman, W. Ray; Inoue, Takashi and Nagasawa, Tetuaki, 2000. Traditional Irrigation Scheduling in Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman, Case Study of Falaj al-Hageer, Northern Oman. In the proceedings of The First International Symposium on Qanat, Volume IV (English Papers), held in Yazd, Iran, May 8-11, 2000, pp. 37-43.

ﺕﻨﻈﻴﻢ و إدارة اﻻﻓﻼج ﻓﻲ ﺳﻠﻄﻨﺔ .Al-Saleemi, Mahfoodh and Abdel Fattah, Nabeel, 1997 Administarion and Organization of Aflaj in the Sultanate of) ﻋﻤﺎن, "دراﺳﺔ ﺕﺤﻠﻴﻠﻴﺔ" Oman, Analytical Study) (in Arabic), Institute of Public Administration, Oman.

Al-Shaqsi, Saif Rashid, 1996. Aflaj Management in the Sultanate of Oman, Case Study of Falaj Al-Hamra (Daudi), Falaj Al-Kasfah (Ayni), M. Sc Theses, Center for Arid Zone University of Wales, Bangor, U.K. Birks, J. S., 1977. The Reaction of Rural Population to Drought: A Case Study from South East Arabia, Erdkunde, Band 31, Ferd. Dumlers publisher, pp. 299-305. Travers Morgan (Oman) LTD, 1993. Study of a Pilot Project for Water Distribution Improvement in Lands Irrigated by Aflaj, Case Study, (Phase II), Final, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, The Sultanate of Oman. Wilkinson, J.C., 1974. The Organization of the Falaj Irrigation System in Oman, Paper No. 10, School of Geography, Oxford. Wilkinson, J.C., 1977. Water and Tribal Settlement in Southeast Arabia: a Study of the Aflaj of Oman, Oxford, Clarendon Press.

115 CHAPTER 5 Irrigation Performance of Aflaj 5.1 Introduction To make the picture about aflaj water management more clear and complete, it is important to assess the irrigation performance within the falaj system. In Chapter two the origin, history, and administrative aspect of aflaj are reviewed. In Chapter three the traditional water distribution and irrigation scheduling are discussed. The study in present Chapter tries to show an approach for estimating the irrigation performance of aflaj. Previous studies have considered the water management in on farm scale, within the falaj system (Norman et al, 1998a, 1998b, 1999, Travers Morgan 1993). Where as this study aims to analyze the over all irrigation performance of the falaj system, by considering the whole falaj as single farming system unit, hence all the lands of the falaj are assumed to be irrigated during a fixed period (dawran).

The villages of ad-Dariz and an-Nujaid (Fig. 5.1.1 to 5.1.3) are located in Ibri region in northern Oman. Ibri has ( اﻟﻈﺎهﺮة) district, the Dhahirah ,(وﻻﻳﺔ ﻋﺒﺮي) wilayat the second largest number of aflaj among the 59 wilayat of Oman. Ibri has total of 363 aflaj after Sohar, 408 aflaj. It is located about 300 km west of the capital, Muscat. The estimated population of ad-Dariz is between 10-15 thousands and an-Nujaid 2 to 5 thousands (rough estimation by the author). These villages are located close to one known also as “Empty ( اﻟﺮﺏﻊ اﻟﺨﺎﻟﻲ) of the world driest deserts, Ar Rub’ al Khali Quarter” (Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, 2003), they have negligibly small amount of rainfall (see Fig. 1.2.1 for the location of Ar Rub’ al Khali). There is no rain gauge in ad-Dariz, however there are rain gauges in two places in the same district, Ibri and Tanam. From these two places, the rain data have been obtained by the Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources (MRMEWR) for 25 years (1975-1999). The average annual rainfall for these 25 years is 88 mm y-1 (Ibri) and 85 mm y-1 (Tanam). The maximum and minimum rainfall data were not available. There is a rain gauge belong to MRMEWR in an-Nujaid. The author could get the readings of this gauge for 8 years, 1991-1998. The average annual rainfall for that period was 133 mm y-1.

116 Falaj ad-Dariz is one of the eight Aflaj in the village of ad-Dariz (Table 5.1.1 created from Ministry of Water Resources, 2000). It is large size daudi falaj with the total length of its channel of 6,503 m in which 5,880m is the tunnel section. Falaj ad- Dariz is selected from the eight aflaj of ad-Dariz, because it is one of the two live aflaj in the village where the other falaj (al-Muqaidah) is not a good representative for this study. Falaj al-Muqaidah is too small and it dries up some times. One of the two mother-wells of falaj ad-Dariz is dried up (Fig. 5.1.2). This falaj has good water quality. According to MRMEWR (2001), the water quality tests show an electrical conductivity (EC) of 479.8 µS cm-1 and pH of 7.9. The local people of falaj ad-Dariz believe that this falaj is constructed during ,(AD. 1692-1711) ( اﻻﻣﺎم ﺳﻴﻒ ﺏﻦ ﺳﻠﻄﺎن, ﻗﻴﺪ اﻷرض) the era of Imam Saif bin Sultan however, no literature have been found to prove this information. Falaj an-Nujaid is a medium size daudi aflaj located about 25 km in the upstream, north, of falaj ad-Dariz. Having curved tunnel, falaj an-Nujaid has only one mother well located in the wadi bed of al-Kabir, 2,225 m away from the first opening of the tunnel. Falaj an-Nujaid has higher value of electrical conductivity (EC) and nearly similar pH number compared with falaj ad-Dariz. With values are 749.3 µS cm-1 and pH of 7.95 (MRMEWR 2001).

117 Table 5.1.1 Aflaj of ad-Dariz. Falaj Status MREWR Serial No. Live F 0026 اﻟﺪرﻳﺰ Ad-Dariz Dead F 2550 اﻟﺤﻼو Al-Hallaw Dead F 2951 اﻟﺨﻮﻳﺒﻴﺔ Al-Khuwaibiyah Dead F 2964 اﻟﺨﻮﻳﺴﺔ Al-Khuwaisah Live F 0062 اﻟﻤﻘﻴﺪح Al-Muqaidah Dead F 2538 اﻟﻤﻮﻳﻠﺢ Al-Muwailah Dead F 2539 اﻟﻘﺎﺏﻞ Al-Qabil Dead F 2964 ﻓﻠﺪﻏﻢ Faldagham

118

56o 58o

Arabian Gulf Musandam

Madha (Oman) Gulf of Oman Dubai

Al Buraymi Sohar 24o Muscat U.A.E Al-Batinah Muscat Ad-Dariz Ibri Tanam An-Nujaid

Ad Dhahirah Nizwa Sur Ash-Sharqiyah 23o

Ad-Dakhiliyah Saudi Arabia

Al-Wusta

Hayma

N Dhofar

Yemen 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 km Salalah

Arabian Sea

Disclaimer: This is an approximated map and not an authority of any kind except of its purpose in the theses. Fig. 5.1.1 The location of ad-Dariz and an-Nujaid.

119

Main Mother Well أم اﻟﻔﻠﺞ

Dried Mother Well Location of the data logger

Location of flow N measurement Ad-Dariz اﻟﺪرﻳﺰ N23º 19´-E56º 36´

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 Km

Fig. 5.1.2 Map of falaj ad-Dariz.

120 The Mother Well أم اﻟﻔﻠﺞ

Location of the data logger

Location of flow measurement N

An-Nujaid اﻟﻨﺠﻴﺪ N23º 28´ 0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 Km E56º 47´

Fig. 5.1.3 Map of falaj an-Nujaid.

121 5.2 Materials and methods The falaj system can be considered as one farm; hence all the individual plots within the falaj are irrigated under same rotation. In this study, date palm is selected to check the irrigation performance. Date palm is occupying more than 90% of the cropping area of falaj ad-Dariz and an-Nujaid, and most of irrigated land by aflaj in Oman. Other crops cover negligible areas in these tow aflaj. The flow rate is measured just in the entrance of the villages to avoid errors created by losing water before it reach the village.

I. Date palm Date palm is the principal crop in Oman. The date’s production in Oman raised from 40 million tons in 1965 to 125 million tons in 1990 (Barreveld, 1993). It is estimated that several millions of date palm trees are grown in Oman (El Mardi, 1995). Date palm (phoenix dactylifera, Fig. 5.2.1) is very typical crop for dry environment such as Arabian Desert, as it is temperature, drought and salt tolerant plant. These perennial trees can reach an age over 100 years and a height over 24 m, however average height and age is much less than that. Barreveld (1993) stated that five main stages in the palm's life cycle can be distinguished: 1. Growth of the offshoot attached to the mother palm (5-8 years) 2. Growth of the separated and transplanted offshoot (4-6 years) 3. Start and increasing fruit yields and formation of offshoots (14-20 years) 4. Full productivity but no more offshoot formation (30-35 years) 5. Declining yields. In ad-Dariz and an-Nujaid, dates palms flowers between January and March and harvested between May and September. Most of the harvesting occurs between June and August. In general assessment, date palm flowers in winter, the fruit grow in spring and it is harvested in summer. In optimum conditions, date palm can produce up to 100 kg y-1 of fruits or even more, per tree. The bulk of date’s root zone is seldom exceeds 1m however some roots may be extended up to 2 m below ground level (Barreveld, 1993). Other crops are planted in aflaj seasonally. Winter crops, such as wheat, barely and garlic, are planted between October and November and harvested between March

122 and April. Summer crops, such as onion, beans and corn, are planted between February and April, and harvested between June and September.

123

Fig. 5.2.1 Schematic picture of the date palm during a one-year production cycle (Barreveld, 1993).

124 II. Irrigation Demand/Supply ratio (D/S) There are several methods to evaluate the irrigation performance. In this study the ratio of crop water demand to irrigation supply (Demand over Supply ratio, D/S) is used. Norman et al (1998 a, 1998 b and 2001) had used it to estimate the irrigation performance in aflaj. If the D/S is much less than 1.0, it means that the farmers are over-irrigating, so the water is wasted away or lost below the root zone. Minimum ratio of 0.6 is accepted for surface irrigation (Norman et al 1998 a). If the D/S is grater than 1.0, it is mean farmers are applying less water than plant requirements.

III. Calculations D/S ratio is used as described in the equation:

D/S = Id / Is (1)

Id = irrigation demand by crops (mm)

Is = the supplied water to the field (mm) -1 Id is the crop water requirement for date palm (ETc) (mm d ). Id is a function of plant growth and climate conditions. In summer, the demand for water is higher than winter due to the increase in temperature. Average daily Id values for each month in the year, were obtained from published official literature by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth (MAFW, 2003).

Is can be expressed as:

Is = Ir + R (2)

Ir = the water supplied by the falaj per unit area (mm) R = effective rain (mm)

Ir can be calculated as following:

Ir = V / A (3) V = the total supplied water over a period of time (yearly, monthly or daily)(m3). A = the irrigated area (m2). The irrigated area and maps obtained from published official literature by MRMEWR (2001). The volume of water delivered is calculated from the flow rate and time: V = ∑ Q*t (4) Q = the flow rate (m3 s-1)

125 t = time (s) The flow rate is calculated from the reading of the water level data logger after calibration. For calibration, the flow rate is measured several times in the field. Q can be described as: Q = f (H) (5) f (H) = the calibration empirical equation H = the water head as recorded by the data logger (m)

IV. Data collection Data are collected by direct fieldwork, laboratory work, interviews and literature. One field assistant, a citizen of the falaj, was trained to collect rain data and field observations (such as sudden rise of water flow, unusual behavior of irrigators, etc) and record them. Most of the farmers were interviewed informally. Detailed interviews were done with the falaj wakil. The author kept continuous contact with the falaj community and with members of the family of the wakil. This is to insure return check at any time regarding the subject of this study. The laboratory work for soil texture analyses and for obtaining the field capacity are done in the laboratories of Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. The following Omani organizations were also visited to collect more information on aflaj from published work: • Ministry of Environment, Regional Municipalities and Water Resources. • Ministry of Agriculture and Fishers Wealth. • Sultan Qaboos University. • Ministry of Information. • Ministry of Heritage and Culture. • The public library of the former Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO). Other details on the methodology of collecting the data are listed on chapter 3, section 3.2. a) Rainfall The rainfall at ad-Dariz and an-Nujaid area is scarce. Local hand-made rain gauge is assembled from local materials (Plastic funnel and bottle) and installed on the research area (See Appendix No. 5.2). The diameter of the funnel is 160 mm. By simple calculations, the following calibrating equation was obtained:

126 R = 0.04974 v (6) R = the rainfall (mm) v = the volume of the collected water (ml) b) Water level The data logger was installed in the aflaj tunnels of falaj ad-Dariz and falaj an- Nujaid on 25 May 2002. Figures 5.2.2 and 5.2.3, illustrate the setting of the logger inside the tunnels. Figures 5.1.2 and 5.1.3 show the approximate place of the installation. Solid-state high-duty loggers are used (STS model DL/N). The loggers were adjusted to take reading every hour. Last data downloaded from the loggers was on 25 April 2003, 11 months data were retrieved successfully. c) Flow rate The flow rate was observed four times using a solid-state current meter (model: VALPORT.LTD VEM003). The readings in the canals are taken in three different places as of Fig. 5.2.4. In each point three measurements are taken. In every observation, the width and depth of the water are also measured and recorded. d) Soil sampling Samples had taken from three farms, in the head, center and tail of each falaj cropping area. In each farm samples are removed from three locations in three different depths for each location, 15, 30 and 45 cm. The instruments and tools were provided by Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. e) Soil texture analysis Soil from three depths in each sampling point was mixed. Soil then sieved using 2 mm sieve. Hydrometer method and Soil Textural Classification Triangle were used. The analysis was done in the laboratories of Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. f) Bulk density Hammer core sampler is used with known core volume (137.41 cm3). Undisturbed samples were collected and wet weight was measured at the field. Oven- dry method was used to obtain the bulk density. g) Field capacity The filed capacity is defined as the moisture content of the field soil after 24 hours of full irrigation. Therefore, the selected farms for soil sampling are chosen in condition that it is fully irrigated before 24 hours of the sampling time. The moisture content of samples is calculated using gravitational oven-dry method.

127 Land surface

Bond

Shaft

Logger

Logger electrical cable

Tunnel (Qanat) Water level sensor

Fig. 5.2.2 The setting of the data logger in the tunnel of falaj ad-Dariz.

Logger

Water level sensor

Fig. 5.2.3 The setting of the data logger in the tunnel of falaj an-Nujaid (Photo: May 2002).

128

Land surface

½ H H P1 P2 P3 1/6 W ½ H ½ W

W Fig. 5.2.4 Setting points for flow rate measurements in the falaj canal (P1, P2 and P3).

129 5.3 Results and discussion I. Water utilization a) Falaj ad-Dariz A main mother well of falaj ad-Dariz is located about 6 km from the demand area (Fig. 5.1.2). This mother well is located in the “river bed” of wadi al-Kabir. The In long . (ﺳﺎﻋﺪ اﻟﺤﺮﻳّﺔ) ”falaj used to have one tributary called “Sa’uid al-Harriyah times, before this tributary dried up, falaj ad-Dariz was irrigating much larger land than now. The government of Oman, dug two assistant tube well to assist the falaj flow in case of drought. They are connected to the falaj channel by pipes. The pipes are joined to the falaj channel just before the first outlet of the falaj for drinking (Fig. 5.3.1). During the period of the study, the pumps never used. However due to continuous reduction in the flow rate, the pumps switched on from 29 June 2003, and still operating until 9 January 2004. The pumps will continue operating until the natural flow rate of the falaj raised to its normal conditions. The two pumps are running 24 hours, 12 hours each every day. When the water reached the village it first used for drinking then it passes through men bath, women bath and fort. Just after the fort the main canal is branched into two, ad-Dibdab and as-Safil. b) Falaj an-Nujaid The mother well of falaj an-Nujaid is located in wadi Salma. From the mother to first opening the tunnel is extended to more than 2 km then the water will flow in a canal of about ½ km before entering the agricultural area (Fig 5.1.3 and 5.3.2). As common in all Omani aflaj, the water is first utilized for drinking then it pass through other domestic use till it reaches the agricultural demand area. Unlike falaj ad-Dariz, the falaj has longer open canal, which make the water freely accessed for animals to drink. MRMEWR estimated the annual water demand for livestock in falaj an-Nujaid as 1,564 m3 y-1 (MRMEWR, 2001).

130 Mother well أم اﻟﻔﻠﺞ

Assistant tube wells

Access shafts

Tunnel (Qanat)

Pipe

Dead mother-well ﺳﺎﻋﺪ اﻟﺤَﺮﻳّﺔ

Drinking

Men bath

Women bath

Main fort

Ad-Dibdab irrigation branch Dawran of 9 days Open canals As-Safil irrigation branch Dawran of 10 days

Fig. 5.3.1 Water utilization of falaj ad-Dariz in high flow condition.

131 Mother well أم اﻟﻔﻠﺞ

Access shafts

Tunnel (Qanat)

Drinking (Human and Animal)

Men bath

Open canals Mosque

Main fort

Women bath

Agriculture

Fig. 5.3.2 Water utilization of falaj an-Nujaid.

132 II. Water allocation a) Falaj ad-Dariz In time of high flow, the falaj is divided into two streams, ad-Dibdab and as- Safil. The irrigated of each branch is overlapped, so each area is not well known. Each branch of the two has it is own dawran, 9 and 10 days, respectively. In this case, each branch will receive half of the total flow rate. However, in time of normal flow conditions, the flow is alternated between the two branched and the dawran is set to be 19 days for the entire falaj system (Fig. 5.3.3 and 5.3.4). In time of severe draught the dawran is doubled to 38 days. This village has hybrid system of inspecting the irrigation schedule. The farmers use sundial in daytime and modern watches at nighttime. The sundial of this village is shown in Fig. 3.4.5 of chapter 3. It consists of a 30 cm metal stick fixed vertically on a big solid flat rock, which covered by concrete. The rock is marked permanently for athars and subdivisions of athars up to 1/8 of athar as a smallest division. This type of sundial (locally called lamad or alam) has 3 lines; one for summer, one for winter and one for spring and autumn. In this sundial, the measured athar’s length in summer can be as long as 57 minutes, and less than 30 minutes in winter. In time of conflicts on water allocation, farmers use modern watch by comparing the time of irrigation conflict with the time of last successful irrigation. The reason why the farmers still using the traditional system rather than modern watch, is because of some powerful personnel in the village refused to move to the modern one. Those persons have long time-shares compared with average farmers who has as low as 1 athar each. Each of those who refused the modernization has more than one badda, so their water share is not affected by the seasonal change of day and night lengths around the year. From the 19 days of the dawran, one day is allocated for waqf. The time-share in the waqf day is rented every 6 months; the price per athar is varied dramatically depending on the availability of water. In low flow, it can be as high as 300 R.O (1 R.O equal to 2.6 US$), and as low as 1 R.O in high flow rate. During 1998 to 2002, the falaj flow is raised unexpectedly high, where it had never reached that level for decades. The watershed that feed the falaj (Wadi Kabir) received heavy rain in 1997. In consequence, many farmers (who had stopped farming) start to irrigate their “awabi” fields for crop production. Because of the

133 excess of water supply farmers did not follow the original water allocation system that lead to some conflicts between them afterward. Also, the excess water makes water logging and over irrigation, where lot of date palm gardens becomes water ponds and many plants died (Fig.5.3.6). b) Falaj an-Nujaid Falaj an-Nujaid has a dawran of 10 days. However, in the early 1970s, an- Nujaid had a dawran of 8 days. Athar is the minimum water share unit (Fig. 5.3.7). to ( اﻟﻌﻮاﻣﺮ) After they suffered from serve drought, the owners asked Al-Awamir extend its tunnel so they added 2 days more to the dawran and sold two baddas to Al- Awamir as a return to their service. Al-Awamir are known in Oman as aflaj diggers (Birks and Lits 1982), like the “muqannis’ of Iran (expert of qanat digging). Two days of the dawran is allocated for falaj service. This dawran is fixed regardless the availability of water, however farmers do have some solution to maneuvers within the fixed length of the dawran. The farmers in this falaj are irrigating each farm every 2 to 3 times within the dawran. Farmers made an agreement between them to make the “actual” irrigation intervals shorter, hence the soil in this village is light. For example, if farmer A has 8 athars in a given day within the dawran and farmer B has 8 athars in another day of the dawran, instead of each of them irrigate with 8 athars every 10 days, they make an agreement so that each of them irrigate with 4 athars two times within the 10 days dawran. This mean, the actual irrigation rotation for each individual farm is every 3 to 5 days. The time for irrigation is altered day and night in each dawran, like falaj al- Hageer (section 4.4). Falaj an-Nujaid is a good example of aflaj that modernized their irrigation timing. Before 1970, the sundial and stars system was used for timing irrigation. Then, farmers gradually used the Ghoroobi timing until 1996 when they start to use the Zawali timing. These days, athar is fixed to be 30 min, and modern watch is used for timing irrigation (See Chapter 3 for Ghoroobi and Zawali timing).

134 1 dawran 1 dawran = 19 days

1day 1 day = 2 baddas

2 baddas Day badda Night badda

1 badda =4rabee

4 rabee

1 rabee =6athars

6 athars

1 athar =30min

8 1/8 athar

Fig. 5.3.3 Traditional water-share units of falaj ad-Dariz.

135

High flow conditions Low flow conditions Drought condition Q Q Q

9 days, ½ Q 10 days, ½ Q 19 days, Q 19 days, Q 38 days, Q 38 days, Q Ad-Dibdab branch As-Safil branch Ad-Dibdab branch As-Safil branch Ad-Dibdab branch As-Safil branch

Fig. 5.3.4 Controlling the dawran length to adapt it for the flow rate fluctuations of falaj ad-Dariz.

136 19 days 19 days As-Safil Ad-Dibdab 19 days 19 days As-Safil Ad-Dibdab

0 1 m

10 days, ½ Q 9 days, ½ Q As-Safil Ad-Dibdab

1 m 0 The Mainstream

Fig. 5.3.5 Controlling the dawran length to adapt it for the flow rate fluctuations of falaj ad-Dariz. The upper two photos are for low flow condition (April 2003), the lower photo is for high flow condition (November 2000).

137 Fig. 5.3.6 Water logging in falaj ad-Dariz (over irrigation) (Photo 23 October

138

1 dawaran equal 1day 1 dawaran to 10 days

2 baddas Day badda Night badda

1 badda equal to 24 athars

24 athars

1 athar =30min

Fig. 5.3.7 Traditional water-share units of falaj an-Nujaid.

139 III. Area and crop water requirements (ETc) for date palm a) Area According to MRMEWR (2001), the cropped area of falaj ad-Dariz is 2,554,423 m2 (255.44 ha) and 212,903 m2 (21.29 ha) for falaj an-Nujaid. The area is estimated using GIS system after GPS land survey. b) Crop water requirements for date palm The data for the water requirements (ETc) for date palm was retrieved from MAFW (2003). The calculation made for a plant density of 1 date palm per 15 m2. The published 2003 version is a revision of crop water requirements data also published by MAFW in 1993. The estimation of ETc is based on Penman-Monteith method. Table 5.3.1 shows the crop water requirements for date palm in different regions of Oman. Falaj ad-Dariz and falaj an-Nujaid are located in the Ad Dhahirah region (Fig. 5.1.4), so only the numbers in column “Ad Dhahirah and Ad Dakhiliyah” will be used.

140

Table 5.3.1 The crop water requirements (ETc) for date palm in different regions of Oman (mm d-1) (After MAFW, 2003). North Al Ad Dhahirah South Al Ash Al Wusta Month Batinah and & Ad Batinah Sharqiyah & Dhofar Musandam Dhakhikiyah Jan 4.3 3.7 4.7 5.4 5.9 Feb 4.0 3.4 4.4 5.0 5.5 Mar 6.3 5.4 6.9 7.9 8.6 Apr 9.0 7.7 9.9 11.3 12.3 May 10.8 9.2 11.9 13.5 14.8 Jun 13.4 11.4 14.7 16.8 18.4 Jul 13.5 11.5 14.9 16.9 18.5 Aug 12.5 10.6 13.8 15.6 17.1 Sep 11.6 9.9 12.8 14.5 15.9 Oct 10.2 8.7 11.2 12.8 14.0 Nov 8.6 7.3 9.5 10.8 11.8 Dec 3.6 3.1 4.0 4.5 4.9 Total 3287 2808 3620 4117 4504 Annually

141 IV. Rainfall The rainfall is collected during the period of flow rate and water level measurements (May 2002 to April 2003). Using equation 6, the results are shown on Table 5.3.2. From the table, there are three rain events happened. In event 1, the rainfall is too small to be considered as an input for equation No 2. In event 2 and 3, in the month of April 2003, ad-Dariz received 17.7 and 26.4 mm respectively. These amounts are greater than the daily (ETc) for date palm in April (9.9 mm.d-1), so it will be considered in the calculations. Therefore the total effective rainfall (R) is: R = 17.7 + 26.4 = 44.1 mm. Falaj an-Nujaid is locating close to ad-Dariz, (about 25 km up stream of ad- Dariz) therefore the rainfall data will be used also for an-Nujaid calculations.

142

Table 5.3.2 Amount of rainfall during the observation period (May 2002-April 2003) in falaj ad-Dariz. Duration Gauge reading Converted amount Event Date (h:min) (ml) (mm) 1 01 Nov 2002 00:25 15 0.8 2 14 Apr 2003 00:47 355 17.7 3 17 Apr 2003 07:22 529 26.4 Total 44.9

143 V. Flow rate calibration a) Falaj ad-Dariz Table 5.3.3 illustrates the calibration data for obtaining flow rate from logger readings. From this data by linear regression the following calibration equation is obtained as of Fig. 5.3.8: Q = 99.07 H 0.2186 (R2 = 0.66) Q = the flow rate (l s-1) H = the logger measured head (cm) Fig. 5.3.9 shows the hydrograph of falaj ad-Dariz. From the hydrograph it was clear that the falaj flow was in the process of recession, hence there was little rainfall during that period. It can be notice an abnormal rise and recession in the flow rate between September and October 2002. This was because the falaj qanat get collapsed and farmers tried to repair it. b) Falaj an-Nujaid Table 5.3.4 illustrates the calibration data for obtaining flow rate from logger readings. From this data by linear regression the following calibration equation is obtained as of Fig. 5.3.10: Q = 2.2201 H 1.7874 (R2 = 0.85) Q = the flow rate (l s-1) H = the logger measured head (cm) Fig. 5.3.11 shows the hydrograph of falaj an-Nujaid. From the hydrograph, there are two shots in the flow rate, one on September 2002 and the other one in April 2003. On September, the upstream of the wadies that feed the aflaj of ad-Dariz and an-Nujaid (it is not recorded in ad-Dariz) had heavy rainfall. The tunnel of falaj an- Nujaid is passing through wadi bed, however it is not totally sealed. There are places where surface water can enter the tunnel. So, the high flow in September and April are not from ground water but a temporary intrusion of surface flow. From interviews local people said that it took 6 months for the falaj flow rate to increase to high flow after heavy rain then it will stay with manageable flow for 4 to 5 years, even without any other heavy rain in the same period. However, the recent data is not enough to verify this fact. It needs collection of hydrological data for longer period.

144 In both flow rate calculations (of September and April), it must be noticed that the high flow rate was obtained through extrapolating the regression curve. Thus, these values may include large error.

145

Table 5.3.3 Calibration of the data logger readings for falaj ad-Dariz.

Date Time Logger reading (m) Measured flow rate (l/s)

14.09.2002 15:15 1.203 278.5 03.04.2003 12:30 0.440 206.1 20.04.2003 21:30 0.495 240.4 25.04.2003 22:35 0.498 250.8

Table 5.3.4 Calibration of the data logger readings for falaj an-Nujaid.

Date Time Logger reading (cm) Measured flow rate (l/s) 14.9.2002 16:05 6.0 69.9 13.3.2003 12:35 4.7 34.4 03.04.2003 16:00 4.3 28.2 25.04.2003 18:35 7.2 64.8

146 300

250

200

150 y = 99.07x0.2186 2 100 R = 0.66

Mesured flow rate (l/s) 50

0 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 Logger-measured water head (cm)

Fig. 5.3.8 Flow rate calibration of falaj ad-Dariz.

350

300

250

200

150

Flow rate (l/s) 100

0 25.05.2002 12.06.2002 30.06.2002 18.07.2002 05.08.2002 24.08.2002 11.09.2002 29.09.2002 17.10.2002 04.11.2002 22.11.2002 10.12.2002 28.12.2002 15.01.2003 02.02.2003 20.02.2003 11.03.2003 29.03.2003 16.04.2003 Date

Fig. 5.3.9 Hydrograph of falaj ad-Dariz.

147 80

70 y = 2.2201x1.7874 60 R2 = 0.85 50 40 30 20

Mesaured flow rate (l/s) 10 0 02468 Logger reading (cm)

Fig. 5.3.10 Flow rate calibration of falaj an-Nujaid.

500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 Flow rate (l/s) 100 50 0 25.05.2002 12.06.2002 29.06.2002 17.07.2002 03.08.2002 21.08.2002 07.09.2002 25.09.2002 12.10.2002 30.10.2002 17.11.2002 04.12.2002 22.12.2002 08.01.2003 26.01.2003 12.02.2003 02.03.2003 19.03.2003 06.04.2003 23.04.2003 Date

Fig. 5.3.11 Hydrograph of falaj an-Nujaid.

148 VI. Soil analysis a) Falaj ad-Dariz The results of soil analysis are listed on Table 5.3.5 b) Falaj an-Nujaid The results of soil analysis are listed on Table 5.3.6 From the two tables it is clear that falaj ad-Dariz has heavier soil with higher field capacity than falaj an-Nujaid. Hence, the dawran of falaj ad-Dariz (19 days) is designed to be longer than the dawran of falaj an-Nujaid (8 days).

149

Table 5.3.5 Soil texture, bulk density and field capacity of falaj ad-Dariz. Branch Soil texture Bulk density (g cm-3) Field capacity (% volume) Ad-Dibdab Loam 1.44 19.9 As-Safil Clay Loam 1.42 24.3 Average Clay Loam 1.43 22.0

Table 5.3.6 Soil texture, bulk density and field capacity of falaj an-Nujaid. Soil texture Bulk density (g.cm-3) Field capacity (v)

Sandy Loam 1.72 16.4

150 VII. Irrigation Demand/Supply ratio (D/S) for falaj ad-Dariz a) Annual D/S The logger started the first reading of the water head in the qanat of falaj ad- Dariz on 25 May 2002 at time 14:13. The last reading retrieved from the logger was on 26 April 2003 at time 24:00. For calculations, lets call this period Tp and complete year period Ty. The total time during period of observation Tp is 8047 hours. Should the logger take reading for an entire year (365 days) the total number of readings will be 8760 hours. After applying equation 4, the total volume of water 6 3 delivered to the field at Tp = 7.487 x 10 m 6 6 3 The annual volume Vy = (7.487 x 10 x Ty) / Tp = 8.151 x 10 m 6 From equation 3, Ir = Vy / A = 8.151 x 10 / 2,554,423 = 3.191 m = 3,191 mm

The total supplied water to the field (Is) is Ir + R (equation 2). The effective rain is 44.1mm from section IV. Is will be:

Is = 3,178 + 44 = 3,235 mm From Table 5.3.1 the total annual demand for date palm, ETc = 3,620 mm y-1 The annual demand/supply can be calculated as: D/S = 3,620 / 3,235 = 1.12 or in percentage 112 % The results indicate that the date palms in ad-Dariz are under irrigated. b) Monthly D/S The same method of section VII-a is used to calculate D/S in monthly bases.

For each month, the average daily delivered water (Is) is calculated. The calculation of the monthly bases includes the rainfall of April 2003 (Table 5.3.7).

From Fig. 5.3.9, the pattern of Id and Is are not matched. While the water demand is rising in summer and lowers in winter, the supplied water is following the hydrograph of the falaj. It is clear from the figure that the water supply of falaj ad- Dariz is dropping. From Fig. 5.3.10, the D/S is changing every month. Where from April to November, the falaj did not supply enough water to meet the crop water requirement, while as in December, January and February, the falaj supplied surplus water that exceeds the demand. Only in March, D/S (0.90) is within the accepted range (0.6 – 1.0). This means that the plants are stressed in summer and over irrigated in winter. The highest D/S is of June (1.52) and the lowest is of December (0.49).

151

Table 5.3.7 Monthly D/S for falaj ad-Dariz.

-1 -1 Month Calculated Is (mm d ) MAFW Id (mm d ) D/S

May 2002 9.7 11.9 1.23

Jun 2002 9.7 14.7 1.52

Jul 2002 9.9 14.9 1.51

Aug 2002 9.5 13.8 1.45

Sep 2002 9.6 12.8 1.33

Oct 2002 9.2 11.2 1.22

Nov 2002 8.5 9.5 1.12

Dec 2002 8.2 4.0 0.49

Jan 2003 8.1 4.7 0.58

Feb 2003 7.9 4.4 0.56

Mar 2003 7.7 6.9 0.90

Apr 2003 7.6 9.9 1.30

152 16

14 Is

) Id -1 12

4 Water depth (mm d 2

0 567891011121234 2002 Month 2003

Fig. 5.3.12 Monthly average irrigation demand and supply for falaj ad-Dariz, 2002-2003.

160 140 120 100 80

D/S (%) 60 40 20 0 567891011121234 2002 Month 2003

Fig. 5.3.13 Monthly D/S for falaj ad-Dariz, 2002-2003.

153 VIII. Irrigation Demand/Supply ratio (D/S) for falaj an-Nujaid a) Annual D/S The logger started the first reading of the water head in the qanat of falaj an- Nujaid on 25 May 2002 at time 14:00. The last reading retrieved from the logger was on 25 April 2003 at time 23:00. For calculations, lets call this period Tp and complete one-year period Ty. The total time during period of observation Tp is 8054 hours. Should the logger take reading for an entire year (365 days) the total number of readings will be 8760. After applying equation 4, assuming that the flow rate of one month will be same as the average of previous 11 months, the total volume of water 6 3 delivered to the field at Tp = 1.315 x 10 m 6 6 3 The annual volume Vy = (1.315 x 10 * Ty) / Tp = 1.431 x 10 m 6 From equation 3, Ir = Vy / A = .431 x 10 / 212,903 = 6.723 m = 6,723 mm

The total supplied water to the field (Is) is Ir + R (equation 2). The effective rainfall is

44.1mm from section IV. Is will be:

Is = 6,723 + 44 = 6,767 mm From Table 5.3.1 the total annual demand for date palm ETc = 3,620 mm y-1 The annual demand/supply can be calculated as: D/S = 3,620 / 6,767 = 0.53 or in percentage 53 % The results indicate that the falaj an-Nujaid is over irrigating in yearly bases. b) Monthly D/S

For each month, the average daily delivered water (Is) is calculated. The calculation of the monthly bases includes the rainfall of April 2003 (Table 5.3.8). From Fig. 5.3.11, it is clear that the supplied water has peak on September 2002 and April 2003, when the surface water interred the canal after rainfall. The whole year, falaj an-Nujaid supplying water more than the crops demand. Compared with falaj ad-Dariz, this falaj has light soil with relatively low field capacity. Generally, more water needed to be applied to the soil in an-Nujaid than ad-Dariz. From Fig. 5.3.12, the D/S, falaj an-Nujaid also supplied water more in winter than it did in summer. From May 2002 to August 2002, the falaj performs well, with a D/S values between 0.6 and 1.0. From September 2002 to April 2003, the falaj wasted tremendous amount of water, with a minimum, D/S value in December 2002 (0.25).

154

Table 5.3.8 Monthly D/S for falaj an-Nujaid.

-1 -1 Month Calculated Is (mm d ) MAFW Id (mm d ) D/S

May 2002 19.5 11.9 0.61

Jun 2002 16.3 14.7 0.90

Jul 2002 14.7 14.9 1.01

Aug 2002 15.0 13.8 0.92

Sep 2002 26.3 12.8 0.49

Oct 2002 23.5 11.2 0.48

Nov 2002 18.6 9.5 0.51

Dec 2002 16.2 4.0 0.25

Jan 2003 16.0 4.7 0.29

Feb 2003 15.8 4.4 0.28

Mar 2003 13.9 6.9 0.50

Apr 2003 26.7 9.9 0.37

155 30 Is 25 Id ) -1 20

10 Water depth (mm d

0 567891011121234 2002 Month 2003

Fig. 5.3.14 Monthly average irrigation demand and supply for falaj an-Nujaid, 2002-2003.

100

60 D/S % 40

0 567891011121234 2002 Month 2003 Fig. 5.3.15 Monthly D/S for falaj an-Nujaid, 2002-2003.

156 5.4 Summary Falaj ad-Dariz and an-Nujaid are chosen as case studies to estimate aflaj irrigation performance. Both aflaj are located in an extremely dried environment, where the rainfall is scarce and the evapotranspiration is very high. The study utilized an approach to estimate the irrigation performance in aflaj of Oman by considering the falaj as a single unit of irrigation. The D/S is used in the analysis as a tool for the evaluation. Date palm is selected for the analysis, as it is the dominating crop in aflaj. The rainfall characteristics in Oman can be explained as happened random in space and time. Therefore, a long-term hydrograph is essential to understand falaj hydrology. During the period of the research, ad-Dariz received only 44.1 mm of rainfall. The hydrograph of the falaj shows that the falaj was going on a recession period. The hydrograph of falaj an-Nujaid shows a sudden rise in the flow rate in September 2002 and April 2003, due to intrusion of surface water to the falaj tunnel. In falaj ad-Dariz the dawran was adjusted according to the availability of water. In high flow the main stream is divided to two branches with dawran of 10 and 9 days. In low flow the dawran is raised to 19 days and in time of drought it is redoubled to 38 days. Farmers still use traditional sundial for checking the irrigation schedule. However, in falaj an-Nujaid the dawran is fixed to 10 days permanently, but farmers adapted a solution to irrigate more frequent than the dawran length. The results showed that falaj ad-Dariz is slightly under irrigating the date palm in yearly bases. In monthly basis, the performance of the falaj irrigation is changing. In winter, the D/S is below 0.6 and in summer it is above 1.0. This means that falaj ad-Dariz wastes water in winter and stress the plants in summer. On the other hand, falaj an-Nujaid is supplying too much water than the date palms need all around the year. In winter even the D/S ratio can be as low as 0.25. Even summer, D/S rates not largely exceed 1.0. Perhaps the reason for low D/S in this falaj is because this falaj has a lighter soil that needs more amount of water to be applied. In this falaj, farmers are irrigating more frequently than in ad-Dariz.

The evapotranspiration is a function of time. For a perennial crop such as the date palm, the cycle is relatively repeated every year. Thus, the irrigation supply should be adapted to meet the continues change of the crop water demand. Controlling the frequency of irrigation, flow rate and/or the duration of irrigation can make this adaptation. Unfortunately, in aflaj systems the irrigation rotation (dawran) is fixed for the whole year. The flow rate is govern by hydrological factors and the

157 duration of irrigation, like the dawran, is fixed for each farm within the falaj cropping area.

158 References Barreveld, W.H., 1993. Date Palm Products, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin No. 101, FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Rome. -Al) اﻟﻌﻮاﻣﺮ: ﻗﺒﻴﻠﺔ ﻣﺘﺨﺼﺼﺔ ﺏﺤﻔﺮ اﻻﺏﺎر و اﻷﻓﻼج ﻓﻲ ﺷﻤﺎل ﻋﻤﺎن .Birks, J. S. and Lits, S. I., 1982 .Vol ( ﺕﺮاﺛﻨﺎ,) Awamir: specialized tribe in digging wells and aflaj), Turathuna 38, Ministry of Heritage and Culture, The Sultanate of Oman. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, 2003. El Mardi, M. O., 1995. Traditional Date Culture, in Traditional Agriculture and Fishing in the Sultanate of Oman, Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), Modern Color Printers, Legal Deposit No. 251/95, pp. 18-25. Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth (MAFW), 2003*, Index Guide for Crop (اﻟﺪﻟﻴﻞ اﻻرﺷﺎدي ﻟﺘﻘﺪﻳﺮ اﻹﺡﺘﻴﺎﺝﺎت اﻟﻤﺎﺋﻴﺔ Water Requirements in the Sultanate of Oman prepared by: Alnadi, Abdelmohsin Hasan. * The index is published ,ﻓﻲ اﻟﺴﻠﻄﻨﺔ) in 2003, however it is not written in its cover. Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources, 2001, Aflaj Inventory Project Summary Report, The Sultanate of Oman. Ministry of Water Resources, 2000. Oman, Aflaj Statistics in the Sultanate of Oman .(إﺡﺼﺎﺋﻴﺎت و ﻗﻮاﺋﻢ اﻷﻓﻼج ﻓﻲ ﺳﻠﻄﻨﺔ ﻋﻤﺎن) Norman, W. Ray; Shayya, Walid H. and Al-Ghafri, Abdullah, 1998 a. Irrigation Water Costs and Management Practices Among Farms in Northern Oman, Journal of Scientific Research, Agricultural Sciences, Vol.3, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, pp 1-8. Norman, W. Ray; Shayya, Walid H.; Al-Ghafri, Abdullah, and McCann, I.R., 1998b. Aflaj Irrigation and On-farm Water Management in Northern Oman, Irrigation and Drainage Systems 12, pp 35-38. Norman, W. Ray; Al-Ghafri, Abdullah and Shayya, W. H., 2001 Water Use Performance and Comparative Costs Among Surface and Traditional Irrigation Systems in Northern Oman, in (Ed). Ithaca Press, Reading, UK. Travers Morgan (Oman) LTD, 1993. Study of a Pilot Project for Water Distribution Improvement in Land Irrigated by Falaj, Case study, Phase II, Final. Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Oman.

159 CHAPTER 6 Prospects for the Future of Aflaj 6.1 Introduction The secret behind the sustainability of aflaj through centuries, perhaps related to socio-economical reasons. In the past, when been economically independent aflaj systems could sustain basic life elements such as, water, food and shade, for the oasis’s communities. After discovering and producing oil in the 1960s in Oman, the swift development gradually diminished the importance of aflaj. Such development may hurt the aflaj ecosystem with pollution as well. In any traditional system, people always oppose modernization, thus the challenge is to adapt to the future while preserving their character. The system of water allocation in aflaj is too complex and inflexible enough to suit the changing of crop water requirements in benefitable way. As the results of chapter 5, aflaj tend to supply more water in winter than the crop demand, however in summer it does not meet the crop water requirements. The distribution system is depending on time bases in most of aflaj. Farmers irrigate with fixed duration at fixed cycle (dawran), making the production of high value crops be not feasible. To attain their optimum production, these crops require applying less water but more frequently (irrigation on demand) than the fixed dawran. Water shares are inherited. And by time, through inheriting and selling-buying process, they may become smaller and their distribution through the cropping area becomes unsystematic. Thus, modifying aflaj water allocation is a vital element to sustain them.

6.2 Modernization of irrigation schedule and timing in Aflaj As a result of unbalanced development in Oman, farmers accumulate passive attitude toward aflaj. New generations became unwilling to learn techniques and experience related to agriculture and aflaj. The terminology and names of star system for irrigation and units for water share is too complicated and unorganized, as well its knowledge is disappearing. Hence, it is necessary to standardize the water share units for future development of aflaj by applying new irrigation technologies on the existing systems. Now, there is no standard unit of time of water distribution for all aflaj of Oman. The traditional

160 way of irrigation scheduling is differ from one falaj system to another; this will make the standardization of timeshares to be tricky. Even though in most of the aflaj, farmers use athars as a standard water share unit, the way of inspecting the length of each athar is varied among aflaj. Thus, it is necessary to convince sheiks, wakils and older people of the aflaj to convert to use meridian time (zawali). To shift to use modern watch we have to change all the existing units of water share to standard time, hours, minutes and seconds. For example, Table 6.2.1 lists some traditional units and their equivalent time lengths. It is recommended then that all water shares and irrigation schedule in aflaj to be documented. A database should be created and kept available for farmers and authorities that involve with aflaj and agriculture. The archive should contain data for every water share, including name of the owner, amount of water share (athars, volume, etc), order in the dawran and time to start and finish irrigation. The archiving process will be very difficult in the beginning as some sort of conflicts may occur when modifying the original schedule. So, social studies are needed to find a “safe” way for this change.

161 Table 6.2.1 Some traditional water share units and their equivalent time lengths.

No Traditional water share units Equivalent time length (hr:min:s) 12:00:00 ﺑﺎدة Badda 1 03:00:00 راﺑﻴﺔ Rabia 2 03:00:00 رﺑﻴﻊ Rabee 3 00:30:00 اﺛﺮ Athar 4 00:07:30 ﻗﺎﻣﺔ Qama 5 00:01:15 آﻴﺎس Qiyas 6 00:00:09.38 ﻣﺜﻘﺎل Mithqal 7 00:00:03.13 دﻗﻴﻘﺔ Daqiqah 8 00:00:00.26 ﺣﺒﺔ Habbah 9 x 10-1 s 1.30 ﺷﺮیﻌﺔ Shariah 10 x 10-3 s 5.43 ﺟﻠﻴﻠﺔ Jalilah 11

162 6.3 Suggestions on water management

In order to provide a competitive livelihood that is with those outside aflaj community, the generated income per unit volume of water must be increased. Because water is the most limiting resources in aflaj.

Theoretically, this can be done by:

• Increase the overall area irrigated by the falaj flow

• Increase the value of the crops grown with the water

• Develop non-agricultural sources of income

Practically, several actions can be done to increase the income of local communities by: • Reduce water losses within the system. Lining the falaj canal and tunnels can do this. When possible, using pipes will increase the water conveyance efficiency. For example, such practice is already done in falaj Al-Hageer (Fig. 6.3.1). • Improve water allocation by storing water in tanks to make it available for on- demand of irrigation (Fig. 6.3.2). Then, using gravity fed drip irrigation to enable low-income small farmers to economically produce vegetable crops. Gravity fed drip irrigation requires no water pumps (McCann et al, 2002). • Introduce of protected agriculture (greenhouse production). Aflaj are located in areas with very high evapotranspiration rates, green houses will increase the return value of water per area, and value of products per unit volume of water. However, these green houses need water to be available on demand, so falaj water most be stored in tanks. • Production of high value crops, such as vegetables, herbs, medical and aromatic plants. • Introducing non-agricultural income. Such as eco-tourism, swimming pools that fed from aflaj water, fish farming etc. Fore example, during high flow, tremendous amount of water is wasted in falaj Ad-Dariz; the government planted some fish in the water ponds to control growth of insects (Fig. 6.3.3).

163 Fig. 6.3.1 Replacing the falaj canal by PVC pipe (Photo: Al-Hageer, April 2003).

164 Fig. 6.3.2 Storing water in tanks to improve water allocation (Photo: Al-Hageer, April 2003).

165 Fig. 6.3.3 Water ponds created during high flow period of falaj Ad Dariz. Fish are planted in the ponds (Photo: Ad-Dariz, October 2001).

166 6.4 Pollution control As explained in section 2.6, aflaj are subjected to various kinds of pollutions. The potential for aflaj to be polluted (if not already happened) is increasing as the country developed rapidly. Consequently, it is now the time to conduct diverse researches for evaluating the quality of soil and water environment in aflaj. For example: • Investigate water quality (chemical and biological) • Investigate the possible existence of heavy metals and toxic materials in water and soil. There are several possible sources for these materials, such as crude oil pipelines, gas stations, agricultural chemicals, industrial and urban waists etc. • Investigate the soil conditions and suitability for optimizing agricultural production.

6.5 Summary Aflaj are smart human solution that made the living in extreme dry environments possible. These systems should be preserved for future generations. Developing and keeping aflaj sustainable requires integrated efforts and research. One has to consider aflaj as hydrological, social, ecological and economical system. Development programs should be sensitive to the nature of aflaj societies. In this hydro-political systems, tribal thinking and behavior still dominating the aflaj society. There are several modernization projects in aflaj failed due to tribal conflict solely, like the case of falaj Al-Masharib, Ibri (MAFW, 1997). It is recommended that all the existing traditional water-share units to be converted to standard time. As a result, it is necessary to document all water shares of aflaj, before further steps and big changes take places in the management or the social system of aflaj. The income of local people should be improved. Some suggestions are to store the aflaj water to make it available on demand of irrigation. Then, cultivating high value crops such as medical plants and herbs. Also, recreation activities could be introduced, like fish farming, swimming pools or eco-tourism.

167 References McCann, Ian; Al-Ghafri, Abdullah; Al-Lawati, Imad and Shayya, Walid, 2002. Aflaj: the challenge of preserving the past and adapting to the future,. Proceeding of Oman International Conference on the Development and Management of Water Conveyance Systems (Aflaj), Muscat, May 18-20, 2002. Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth, 1997. Development of traditional (ﺗﻄﻮیﺮ اﻝﻨﻈﻢ اﻝﻤﺰرﻋﻴﺔ اﻝﺘﻘﻠﻴﺪیﺔ ﻋﻠﻰ ﻓﻠﺞ اﻝﻤﺸﺎرب,) farming practice of falaj Al-Masharib (video tape).

168 CHAPTER 7 Conclusions The theses brought more understanding of the traditional practices of irrigation in aflaj of Oman. Origin, history and administrative aspects of aflaj have been reviewed. Some problems facing aflaj also addressed. With several case studies and examples, it made concrete scope for aflaj systems with deep understanding of traditional water allocation in aflaj. It discussed in details the traditional irrigation timing and its modernization and the equitability of water distribution. The study examined an approach for estimating the irrigation performance in aflaj by considering the falaj as a single unit of irrigation. Oman receives very little rainfall per year making agricultural production almost fully dependant on irrigation. Aflaj systems have been utilized in Oman for hundreds of years. Oman has 4,112 falaj in which 3,108 are live aflaj. We can define the falaj (singular of aflaj), as a canal system, which supplies water for a community of farmers for domestic and agricultural use. Because the flow rate of aflaj is varied around the year, aflaj systems have been arranged in such a way that makes it easier for farmers to control draught. After domestic use, falaj water is first used to irrigate the permanent cultivated lands, mostly date palms, and then the seasonal cultivated lands, called awabi. Aflaj systems are also used for industrial and other purposes, such as to drive water mills. Aflaj in Oman can be classified into three types depending on its source of water; ghaili, daudi, and aini. However the methods of administration and management are very similar. Only daudi type is similar to the qanat irrigation system of Iran. Comparable systems of irrigation to daudi aflaj have been or still exist in many places around the world, like Central and Eastern Asia, Middle East, South Europe, North Africa and the Americas, however it is called by different names. Aflaj vary in size; from smaller ones owned by a single family to larger ones having hundreds of owners. Typical Omani falaj administration consists of a director, wakil, two assistants, arifs, one for underground services and the other for above ground services, banker, qabidh, or amin aldaftar, and labor, bayadir. The wakil is in charge of the overall administration of the falaj. Depending on the size of the falaj system, falaj can have the entire mentioned staff or some of them but at least should have a wakil.

169 In general, the water quality of aflaj is good, however there is potential to be polluted from urban and industrial activities. More than one quarter of the aflaj have fallen out of use due to many social and technical problems. The government of Oman is making many efforts to conserve and maintain the aflaj. Several ways are adapted for distributing water among farmers. The widest spread method uses a water share time unit called athar. In this method, the irrigation rotation, dawran, is divided to several days (normally 4 to 20 days). Each full day is divided into two baddas, daytime badda and nighttime badda. Each full day should have 48 athars, so each badda will have 24 athars. Therefore, athar is theoretically equal to 30 minutes. As a rule, in the traditional scheduling method, the daytime badda starts at sunrise and ends at sunset, where the nighttime badda starts at sunset and ends at sunrise. Farmers were using several methods to verify the water share on the field, like estimating time or using the complex sundial and stars system. After the modern watch became available for farmers in first half of the 20th century, they start gradually to check the time using these watches, and they came to fully depend on these watches in some systems, by adapting first the Ghoroobi timing and then the Zawali timing. The terminology and nomenclature of star system for irrigation and units for water share is too complicated and unorganized, as well its knowledge is disappearing. The traditional way of irrigation scheduling is differ from one falaj system to another. Even thought in most of the aflaj, farmers use athars as a standard unit, the way of inspecting the length of each athar is varied among different aflaj. There are always a lot of margins of un-accuracy in measuring water. In many cases, the watering-cycle does not match with the share-cycle. Farmers go through several steps to transfer from using traditional irrigation timing to modern watch. Because the practical length of athar and the flow rate of aflaj are changing, farmers adapted many ways to ensure fair distribution of water shares among them. In the traditional sundial and star method farmers may have more or less water per athar. In winter, farmers irrigating at nighttime will receive more water than farmers irrigating in daytime and vice versa for summer. Farmers solved this problem by having another rotation within the dawran. It was a day-night rotation. Farmers act against the change in falaj flow rate by dividing the falaj into smaller streams, re- adjusting the dawran or store the falaj water in a big tank before irrigating.

170 In case of falaj al-Hageer, dawran is fixed to be 7 days. Farmers still use sundial and stars for irrigation scheduling. Due to the location of al-Hageer and the complexity of the method used in scheduling, the actual number of athars received by a farmer does not match with the owned number of athars, in daily basis. The strong tradition of farmers makes them insist on keeping this difficult method of scheduling. Even though the system is very complicated, farmers tried many ways to make it equitable. In the long run, every farmer will rotate irrigating at different times of the day or night, in the same schedule. This will minimize the effect of the variation of athars length. Aflaj of ad-Dariz and an-Nujaid are chosen as case studies to estimate aflaj irrigation performance. Both aflaj are located in an extremely dried environment, where the rainfall is scarce and the evapotranspiration is very high. The study utilized an approach to estimate the irrigation performance in aflaj of Oman by considering the falaj as a single unit of irrigation. The Demand / Supply ratio (D/S) is used in the analysis as a tool for the evaluation. Date palm is selected for the analysis, as it is the dominating crop in these aflaj. The rainfall characteristics in Oman can be explained as happened randomly in space and time. Therefore, a perennial hydrograph is essential to understand falaj hydrology. During the period of the observations (May 2002 to April 2003), ad-Dariz received only 44.1 mm of rainfall. The hydrograph of the falaj shows that the falaj is going on a recession period. The hydrograph of falaj an-Nujaid shows a sudden rise in the flow rate in September 2002 and April 2003, due to intrusion of surface water to the falaj tunnel. In falaj ad-Dariz the dawran is adjusted according to the availability of water. In high flow the main stream is divided to two branches with dawran of 10 and 9 days. In low flow the dawran is raised to 19 days and in time of drought it is redoubled to 38 days. Farmers still use traditional sundial for checking the irrigation schedule. However, in falaj an-Nujaid the dawran is fixed to 10 days permanently, but farmers adapted a solution to irrigate more frequently than the every dawran. The results showed that falaj ad-Dariz is slightly under irrigating the date palm in yearly bases. In monthly basis, the performance of the falaj irrigation is changing. In winter, the D/S is below 0.6 and in summer it is above 1.0. This means that falaj ad-Dariz wastes water in winter and stress the plants in summer. In other hand, falaj an-Nujaid is supplying too much water than the need of date palms around the year. In

171 winter even the D/S ratio can be as low as 0.25. Perhaps the reason for that is because this falaj has a lighter soil that needs more amount of water to be applied. In this falaj, farmers are irrigating more frequently than in ad-Dariz. The evapotranspiration is a function of time. For a perennial crop such as the date palm, the production cycle is repeated every year. Thus, the irrigation supply should be adapted to meet the continuous change of the crop water demand. Controlling the frequency of irrigation, flow rate and/or the duration of irrigation can make this adaptation. Unfortunately, in aflaj systems the irrigation rotation (dawran) is fixed for the whole year. The flow rate is govern by hydrological factors and the duration of irrigation, like the dawran, is fixed for each farm within the falaj cropping area. Aflaj are smart human solution that made the living possible in extreme dry environments. These systems should be preserved for future generations in rural areas. Developing and keeping aflaj sustainable requires integrated efforts and research. One has to consider aflaj as hydrological, social, ecological and economical system. Development programs should be sensitive to the nature of aflaj societies. In this hydro-political systems, tribal thinking and behavior still dominating the aflaj society. It is recommended that the existing traditional water-share units to be converted to standard meridian time. As a result, it is necessary to document all water shares of aflaj, before further steps and big changes take places in the management or the social system of aflaj. The income of local people should be improved. Some suggestions are to store the aflaj water to make it available on demand of irrigation. Then, cultivating high value crops such as medical plants and herbs. Also, recreation activities could be introduced, like fish farming, swimming pools or eco-tourism. Further research is needed to precisely evaluate the hydrological and agricultural system of aflaj. This requires measuring more parameters for long periods. For falaj hydrological studies, rainfall, flow rate and wadies floods records are necessary. For detailed irrigation performance evaluations, on-field weather data should be measured with real-time soil moisture content in the soil within and below the root zone. For measuring the land use, high-resolution satellite images can be used, with images captured in each cropping season every year. A complete

172 understanding of the aflaj water management may not be attained unless further measurements on water and soil quality are made, as well, economical evaluation of the input and output of the falaj system in connection to irrigation.

173 Acknowledgements My gratitude goes to the following professors and researchers who helped me on this study: I thank Prof. Tetuaki Nagasawa, Prof. of Land Improvement and Management, Hokkaido University, my academic advisor. Beside his academic advises along my stay in Japan, since 1997, and his comments that improved the theses quality, I thank him for his warm personality and kindness. I am grateful to Dr. Takashi Inoue, Associate Professor at Laboratory of Land Improvement and Management at Hokkaido University, who helped me a lot in writing and editing the theses. I appreciate his support by giving me ideas and advices in conducting the research. I also thank him for being patent with me as the main advisor for the theses. I want also to appreciate his encouragement and help. I am indebted to Prof. Shuichi Hasegawa, Prof. of Soil Physics, Hokkaido University, for accepting to be my co-advisor. I appreciate his valuable comments and discussion that improved the quality of the theses. Thanks to Prof. Fumio Osanami, Prof. of Agricultural Development, Hokkaido University, for accepting to be my co-advisor and for his valuable comments. I acknowledge Dr. Tadao Yamamoto and Dr. Hiromu Okazawa of the Laboratory of Land Improvement and Management for their technical assistant. I am indebted to Prof. Iwao Kobori, The United Nations University who sent me some of his publications. I am grateful for his continuous support. It is my honor to communicate with him. I thank Dr. W. Ray Norman, Dean, School of Mathematics, Engineering and Business Messiah College, USA, as my work with him in Oman (1995-1997), was the basement that I stepped on to study aflaj. I am grateful to Dr. Ian McCann, University of Delaware, USA, for his technical advises that helped me in carrying out this study. I thank Mr. Hisao Wushiki from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), for giving me inspiration to work on aflaj and for his continuous help. My thanks go to Mr. Getachew Girmay, from Ethiopia, my close friend, for motivating me all time. I do appreciate his advises in life and his comments in parts of the theses. I acknowledge Mr. Tsuneyoshi Kimura for teaching me the basics of air photo interpretation.

I also would like to acknowledge the support of the following organizations: The United Nations University, UNU (Tokyo, Japan) for their UNU research grant, number: HQ-2001-SSA-O-00073. This grant was necessary to enable me to

174 conduct some field surveys on aflaj. Parts of the data presented in chapter 3 and chapter 4 are obtained from these surveys. Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, for logistical and technical support. Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources, Oman, for logistic support. The Hydrological Research Inc., Sapporo, Japan, for their cooperation.

Special thanks for those who helped me, directly or indirectly, among them, Mr. Mohammed Al-Balushi, SQU and Mr. Suliman Al-Hattali (the field assistants in al- Hageer) and Al-Hattali family in al-Hageer; Rashid, Adeem, Khalid and others. The Wakils of aflaj al-Hageer, an-Nujaid and ad-Dariz for there cooperation. Mr. Salim Al-Ghafri, the field assistant in ad-Dariz and an-Nujaid. My brothers who assisted me in the field survey and loggers installations, Khamis, Mohammed, Sami and Mazin. The secretary Ms. Machi Honma and my colleagues in the Laboratory of Land Improvement and Management at Hokkaido University. Last but not least, I would like to thank my wife Rajae Salemi for helping me in translating French written papers, for her understanding and for her patent of staying with me abroad. Every year I left her alone with our son Husam in Japan for months to do the research tasks.

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187 Appendix 4.3 Equitably of water distribution

q1 . t1

q2 . t2

V = Q . t (falaj) q3 . t3

qn . tn

From the figure, the amount of water that the farmer will receive (V) is equal the amount of flow in the main canal (Q) multiply by his owned athars, time (t). See equation 1: V = Q . t (1) The flow rate in each canal is equal so: q1 = q2 = q3 = qn (2) Then the flow rate in each (qn) will be equal the total flow divided by total number of sub-canals (N) like the following equation: qn = Q . N-1 (3) Let us consider that a farmer irrigates using more than one sub-canal. In this case to get the same volume of water as if he irrigate from the main stream the new time of his irrigation should change. Let us call that time T. Then, Q . t = T . (q1 + q2 +…+ qn), because the flow rate in all sub-canal is equal (eq. 2), we can re-write the above equation as: Q . t = n . q . T n is equal number of streams which farmer use simultaneously. By replacing q by Q . N-1 (eq.3), will results this equation: Q . t = n . Q . N –1 . T Solving for T, T will be equal: t . N . n-1

188 Appendix 5.2

From the figure the rainfall (R) in mm is obtained as follow:

R = v / A = v / лD2/4

v = Volume of collected water in ml * 10-6 (m3)

D = Diameter, in this device equal 0.16 m

Therefore R (mm) = 0.0497 v (ml) R

D 0.16 m

Funnel

Bottle

189 学位論文内容の要旨

アブドゥラセイフアルガフリ環境資源学専攻博士（農学）氏名 Abdullah Saif Al-Ghafri

学位論文題名

Study on Water Distribution Management of Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman (オマーン国アフラジ灌漑システムにおける水配分管理に関する研究)

乾燥・半乾燥地域は地球上の陸域の約 4 割を占め，7 億人の人口を擁している。またその土地の 6 割は発展途上国に位置しており，これらの地域における持続的農業の堅持は地域の安定と発展のために不可欠である。乾燥地における水資源のありようは，生物生産および人間の生存そのものを左右する極めて重要な要素であり，農業もその土地固有の環境や経済状況等に適応した農業が営まれることとなる。アラビア半島東部に位置するオマーン国では，アフラジ（aflaj，複数形はファラジ falaj）とよばれる独特の灌漑農業が営まれてきた。アフラジそのものは，水源から農村集落と農地に導水する水利施設のことを指し示すが，そこには特有の水利用形態に対応した水管理システムが備わっており，なおかつその管理には地域農民が自ら管理する，いわば農民参加型管理が実践されてきた。本研究はそのアフラジにおける水管理の面について，その配分の平等性担保の仕組みや，干ばつ時の対応，近代化に伴う水配分システムの変化の実態，灌漑効率の評価を，いくつかのフィールド調査をつうじて明らかにし，乾燥地特有の水管理のあり方について究明するものである。

１．年間降水量が 100〜200mm にすぎないオマーン国で古くから利用されてきたアフラジ灌漑システムについて概括した。現代においても 3 千を越える様々な規模のアフラジがオマーン国内において利用されており，これらは水源により 3 種類に大別される。湧水を起源とするアイニ・アフラジ（Aini aflaj），表流水を起源とするガイリ・アフラジ（Ghaili aflaj），それにワジ（枯れ川）の伏流水や地下水を起源とするダウディ・アフラジ（Daudi aflaj）である。このうちダウディ・アフラジは，イランやアフガニスタンなどにみられるカナート灌漑に類似のものである。干ばつに対応するため，アフラジの水はまず生活用水として集落で用いられた後，永年生作物（主にナツメヤシ），ついで一年生作物（穀類，野菜など）に灌漑される。すなわち，干ばつ時にはまず人間の生存を確保した後，永年生作物の枯損を防ぎつつ，水量に応じた一年生作物の作付がなされる。アフラジの水管理システムはワキルと呼ばれる管理責任者を筆頭とした農家組織に依っており，農家はそれぞれが所有する水利権に応じた水配分を得ることとなる。

２．アフラジの水は，多くの場合，水量ベースではなく，時間ベースで配分される。これは干ばつ時においても平等に水を行き渡らせるための工夫の一つである。アタール（athar）とよばれる時間の基本単位が用いられており，理論上，1 アタールは 30 分となっている。1 アタールはさらに 24 キヤス（qiyas）に分けられるが，1 キヤスはナツメヤシ 1 本分の灌漑時間に相当するとされている。また一つの灌漑ローテーションはドーラン（dawran）とよばれ，地区によって異なるが，通常 4 日間ないし 20 日間で 1 ドーランとなっている。時計のない時代から，ローテーション灌漑をできるだけ正確に行うため，農家はさまざまな方法を採ってきた。伝統的によく使われてきたのは太陽と星の運行を用いる方法である。季節による太陽高度の違いと日長変化に対応する工夫のなされた日時計が広く用いられてきた。近年，時計が一般化しても，保守的な農村社会ではすぐに時計（クロノグラフ）利用には移行せず，段階的移行にとどまっている。すなわち，時計導入以前の計時システムから，一部天体運行を使いつつ日単位で時計を利用するシ

190 ステム，さらに恒常的に時計を利用するシステムへと変化してきている。いっきに時計利用へ移行しないのは，大きな水利権を有する農家の既得権に配慮しているためである。

３．日長変化や流量変動に対応しつつ，水配分の公平性を保つため，地区毎に農家は様々な工夫をしてきた。天体運行を使うことにより生ずる昼夜の単位時間長の差異を最小限にするためには，灌漑の順序を常時入れ替えるとともに，ローテーションを昼と夜で交互に組み替えることでも対応している。干ばつ時の流量減少には，分配する支線水路の数を制限し，灌漑ローテーションの時間単位であるドーランを 2 倍・3 倍する，あるいは水を水槽に一時貯留することで水路損失を減少させる，などの方法が採られている。事例調査を行った地区では，地形的条件もあって非常に複雑な水配分ルールが設けられていた。しかし水配分を時間ベースに頼っている以上，正確な計時がもっとも重要なことでありながら，時計を使わない伝統的方法では不正確さは排除しきれていなかった。

４．２つのファラジにおいてその灌漑溝率を評価するための調査をおこなった。両地区とも可能蒸発散量が降水量を大きく上まわる乾燥地である。2002 年 5 月から 2003 年 4 月にわたるほぼ 1 年間の観測では，両地区の総降水量は 50mm を下回り，流量も逓減傾向にあった。ただし降雨イベントも数度観測され，灌漑水路のトンネル部の崩落や表流水のトンネルへの流入とみられる事象も発生している。この間，ひとつのアフラジでは流量の減少に対応して 2 つの支線に同時に通水せず 1 支線のみの通水とし，それぞれの支線が有する 9 日および 10 日というドーラン（灌漑ローテーション）を統合して 19 日のローテーションが組まれた。干ばつが深刻になったときにはさらに倍の 38 日のドーランが組まれるに至っている。一つの灌漑区単位で水需要量と供給量の比を取り，これを需要供給比（D/S， Demand / Supply Ratio）とした。需要量には基幹作物であるナツメヤシの水消費量を文献値から採用した。供給量には各地区のアフラジの幹線水路で実測した流量を用いた。一つのアフラジでは年ベースでみた場合，D/S が 1 をやや上回ったことから，供給不足の傾向がうかがえた。月ベースでは冬季に 0.6 以下，夏季には 1.0 以上となる季節変化をみせた。もう一方のアフラジでは年ベースで D/S が大きく 1 を下回り，供給過剰にあることが判明した。ただしこのアフラジ潅漑区の土壌はより軽しょうであったため，農家は灌水頻度を多くしていた。作物の水需要は蒸発散量の変動によって大きく季節変化するのに対し，アフラジによる灌水ローテーションは固定的である。灌漑頻度，灌水量，灌水時間を調整することにより灌漑効率の向上がはかれる余地がある。

５．アフラジ灌漑は，極度の乾燥条件下で人間が生存しかつ農業を営むために生み出されたシステムのひとつであり，その管理方法には水配分の合理性と平等性を担保するための様々な工夫が盛り込まれていることが明らかとなった。水源の特異性と乾燥地という立地条件を反映して，干ばつに対応した水供給がなされていることも明らかになったが，その一面で水需要に柔軟に対応したシステムとはなっていない点も明らかとなった。乾燥地では，農村社会の存続基盤はひとえに水利システムにあり，オマーン国でも農村社会の持続と発展のためには，根幹にあるアフラジ水利システムの維持と近代化が不可欠である。そのためには伝統的計時システムから時計計時への移行と，既存水利権の記載整理が重要である。また灌漑効率の向上のためには，需要に応じた水管理が行えるようなシステムの取り込みや，一時貯留施設の設置も検討に値する。

191 Glossary of Local Terms

Meaning ﻋﺮﺑﻲ Local Term A complete water share of an owner of water or/and ﺁد Add land in the falaj within the dawran. See also Khaborah and Raddah. Plural of falaj. Omani canal systems that provide أﻓﻼج Aflaj water for domestic and agricultural use. .Water spring ﻋﻴﻦ Ain Spring type falaj. Falaj that its water source comes ﻓﻠﺞ ﻋﻴﻨﻲ Aini falaj from water spring “ain”. Sundial used in northern Oman, which utilize the ﻋَﻠَﻢ Alam shadow of a vertically fixed stick on flat rock marked with lines. Omani tribe specialized in digging aflaj, like اﻟﻌﻮاﻡﺮ Al-Awamir “muqannies” the diggers of qanat in Iran. Banker of the falaj. Same with qabidh. He is in أﻡﻴﻦ اﻟﺪﻓﺘﺮ Amin al-daftar charge of recording the cash flow of the falaj. The great desert of Arabia, one of the driest and اﻟﺮﺑﻊ اﻟﺨﺎﻟﻲ Ar Rub’ al-Khali largest deserts in the world, also known as “Empty Quarter”. .Work force leader (foremen) in falaj ﻋﺮیﻒ Arif .Islamic call for prayer أذان Athaan .The mostly used water share unit in aflaj of Oman أﺛﺮ Athar Theoretically it is equal to 30 min. Lands cultivated seasonally depending on the ﻋﻮاﺑﻲ Awabi availability of water, usually located in the tail of the falaj cultivated-area. ,Unit for distributing water in aflaj of Oman ﺑﺎدّة Badda theoretically equal to 12 hours or 24 athars in most aflaj. Properties or money allocated for Islamic ﺑﻴﺖ اﻟﻤﺎل Bait al-mal government to be used for public service.

192 Workers in aflaj, traditionally they are paid by part ﺑﻴﺎدیﺮ Bayadir of the agricultural products that they produce. They are responsible on irrigation and major agricultural activities in aflaj. .Singular of bayadir ﺑﻴﺪار Bidaar Auctioneer. He organizes and sometimes دﻻل Dallal documents the renting of water, agricultural products or estates in aflaj of Oman. Also called, Iddi falaj, is mother-well qanat-type داؤودي Daudi falaj falaj. The irrigation rotation. It is fixed usually between 7 دوران Dawran to 14 days in Omani aflaj. .Shadow ﻇﻞ Dhill .Singular of aflaj ﻓﻠﺞ Falaj Shaft, an access shaft (well) to the tunnel (qanat) of ﻓﺮﺽﺔ Fordhah the falaj for service and emergency. Also called thuqbah. .The base flow in wadi upstream ﻏﻴﻞ Ghail .Falaj, which its source is diverted water from ghail ﻓﻠﺞ ﻏﻴﻠﻲ Ghaili falaj .Branch of water stream ﻏﻴﺰ Ghaiz Local timing in which analogue watch is set to ﻏﺮوﺑﻲ Ghoroobi 12:00 every day at sun set. .See daudi falaj ﻋﺪّي Iddi falaj .Mountain ﺝﺒﻞ Jabal ,Stone, used as time mark in local Omani sundials ﺝﺎﻡﻮود Jamood lamad. .”Plural of “jamood ﺝﻮاﻡﻴﺪ Jawameed A complete water share of an owner of water or/and ﺥﺒﻮرة Khaborah land in the falaj within the dawran. See also Add and Raddah. Sundial used in northern Oman, which utilize the ﻟﻤﺪ Lamad shadow of a vertically fixed stick on flat land marked with stones (jawameed).

193 .Big tank for storing irrigation water ﻟﺠﻞ Liggil .A water share allocated for the falaj community ﻡﻘﻌﻮدة Maqoudah This water is rented periodically, every each dawran, every 6 months or every one-year. Also called mazyodah. Left without control. This term used in aflaj to ﻡﺮﻏﻮد Marghod describe the falaj flow, when the access to it is given free for irrigators during high flow periods. .See shariah ﻡﺸﺮع Mashra .A water share allocated for the falaj community ﻡﺰیﻮدة Mazyodah This water is rented periodically, every each dawran, every 6 months or every one-year. Also called maqoudah. Water share unit in aflaj of Oman, theoretically ﻡﺜﻘﺎل Mithqal equal to about 9.4 seconds. Term to describe the falaj flow, when the main ﻡﻐﺎیﺰ Moghayaz stream of the falaj is divided to sub streams. The process of dividing the falaj flow to equal sub ﻡﻐﺎیﺰة Moghayazah streams. The process of checking the irrigation schedule in ﻡﺤﺎﺽﺮة Mohadharah aflaj. .Same meaning as mohadharah ﻡﺤﺎیﻨﺔ Mohaynah ,Estate, in falaj system it can be in forms of water ﻡﻠﻚ Mulk land, or/and crops. Term describe the falaj sub streams when they are ﻡﻮّﻟﻒ Muwallaf joined. .Banker. See also amin al-daftar ﻗﺎﺑﺾ Qabidh .Judge ﻗﺎﺽﻲ Qadhi Water share unit in aflaj of Oman, theoretically ﻗﺎﻡﻪ Qamah equal to 7.5 minutes or quarter of an athar. .Tunnel for conveying water ﻗﻨﺎة Qanat Water share unit in aflaj of Oman, theoretically ﻗﻴﺎس Qiyas equal to 1.5 minutes or 1/24 of an athar.

194 Water share unit in aflaj of Oman, theoretically رﺑﻴﻊ Rabee equal to about 3 hours or 6 athars. A complete water share of an owner of water or/and ردّة Raddah land in the falaj within the dawran. See also Add and Khaborah. .Same meaning as rabee رﺑﻌﺔ Riba Persian calendar used for organizing agricultural روزﻧﺎﻡﻪ Roznameh activities. Falaj tributary, an extra mother well connected to ﺳﺎﻋﺪ اﻟﻔﻠﺞ Sa’uid al-falaj the main falaj tunnel with sub tunnel. A time measuring device used for water distribution ﺹﺤﻠﺔ Sahlah in aflaj, also called tasa. Omani local cement ﺹﺎرووج Sarooj ,Place where the main stream of the falaj is divided ﺷﺮیﻌﺔ اﻟﻔﻠﺞ Shariah or first utilized. .The head of the village or tribe in Oman ﺷﻴﺦ Sheikh .See sahlah ﻃﺎﺳﺔ Tasa .See fordhah ﺛﻘﺒﺔ Thuqbah .Dried river, valley وادي Wadi .The executing director of the falaj administration وآﻴﻞ Wakil Governor. Representing the Omani government, in واﻟﻲ Wali each district. See also wilayat. Properties or money allocated for falaj community وﻗﻒ Waqf to be used for falaj service, mosque or public service within the falaj system. Administrative districts in Oman. There are 59 وﻻیﺔ Wilayat wilayat in Oman. See also wali. .Meridian timing زواﻟﻲ Zawali

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