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March 11, 2005

In the desert you can't remember your name ....

Qatar is a desert. Admittedly one broken here and there by clumps of bushes and a few trees, but it is largely sand and more sand. The South of the country has an extensive dune "sea" and the very name of the country is from an Arabic word for the people who lived here which meant "water seekers".

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A Camel breeding programme is sponsored by the Amir, and camels can be seen grazing wherever there is sufficient grazing for them.

This is a country where the camel comes into its own. It does rain here periodically, usually in February and March, short bursts that do not soak in and simply run off the parched ground. The high silica content of the ground is a contributory factor in this, and the fast run-off gives rise to flash flooding.

Almost all potable drinking water today comes from the generation of electricity, with a mix of distillation and hydro-pore membrane systems in use. Pumps provide the pressure to circulate the water from plant to point of use, but do not run continuously so every building has a large reserve tank which fills up at night and other off-peak times for the power station when they can shunt the generators' output to the pumps.

A bleak and baked landscape, fit probably only for those creatures and plants which can survive in it! In a way, it does bear out the legendary view of the people of this area that when God saw that He had given them such poor land, He felt they should also have the means for great wealth - so he gave them oil and gas as well!

Posted by The Gray Monk at March 11, 2005 11:23 AM