A friend of mine makes good use of Twitter to display his wide range of interests in the fields of heritage, the arts and more besides. And so, through something my friend had shared, I came across a fascinating article in the Spanish newspaper El Pais about a programme to bring back to life some of the 1,000-year-old water channels called acequias that once irrigated much of the landscape around the city of Granada in the south of Spain.
The Aynadamar acequia was originally built in the 11th Century to supply Granada’s historic Albaicin quarter. It later supplied the artisans of the Nasrid dynasty who built the Alhambra Palace, one of the glories of Arab-Islamic Spain, in the 12th and 13th Centuries. It remained operational until the 1980s, when it fell into disuse because road construction interrupted its flow.
Thousands of kilometres of acequias were built, supplying water not only to cities like Granada but towns, villages and hillsides across southern Spain, Al Andalus (Andalucia).
This model became obsolete as people moved from the countryside to urban centres and agriculture became more intensive, and, from the 1960s, the acequias were gradually abandoned.
In the past few years, though, there has been a little revival. In 2014, villagers in the tiny town of Canar, with help from the University of Granada, began work to restore their acequia, digging out the old channels and removing decades of rubbish. With the water flowing again, not only Canar but other towns downstream benefit, as the community works together to preserve and cherish something of value to them all.
By the end of March, the Aynadamar acequia will be flowing once again, irrigating the University of Granada campus.
A historian involved in the project, Jose Maria Civantos, told El Pais that the overall project has involved work on more than 80 kilometres of acequias, with 14 of them being brought back into use. With an estimated 3,000 km of acequias alone in the Sierra Nevada, around Granada, there is much more to be done.
Mr Civantos notes: “It is also about the social recognition of rural areas, agricultural activity and local knowledge, which is scientifically valid in most cases, all of which generates landscapes with cultural and environmental value – immense resources that are key to guaranteeing our future as a species.”
It's a wonderful project. I wonder whether it could be adapted for use in the UAE. Anyone who has wandered around the UAE’s mountains will have noticed the old terraced fields that have been abandoned, some recently, some in the distant past. In the mountains above Ras Al Khaimah, there is evidence that much of the food required for the thriving ancient seaport of Julfar was once grown here. The fields are mute testimony of a time when the mountain dwellers harnessed resources effectively. They would not otherwise have survived.
Some of those fields are gradually being brought back into use – for example, in Wadi Baggara, near the little town of Sifini, in southern Ras Al Khamiah – but often with the use of pumps, not by revitalising and employing the old skills that once made it possible for food to be grown in now-barren areas.
While the UAE is making impressive strides towards meeting its long-term food security goals by growing food locally, most of our food today is still imported. Most of the water used for irrigation is derived from desalination plants, especially as supplies of freshwater in lowland areas are being depleted. And, with the drift of population to the towns and cities, mountain settlements are becoming depopulated, or being used as weekend homes.
Is there something we can learn from the Spanish experience with the acequias? After all, perhaps on a smaller scale, it is clear that there are parallels between the amazing talents of those who built the irrigation systems of Al Andalus and those of the ancient inhabitants of the UAE’s mountains.
One of my favourite spots in the UAE is Fujairah’s Wadi Safad. There you can find the hilltop fortress of Husn Safad with, just above the wadi bed below it, ancient field systems with their now-abandoned irrigation channels. I dream of the fortress being once again surrounded by verdant greenery, watered by restored little rivulets of water. Some of the fields have been revived in recent years, though there is more yet to be done.
It would provide a boost to local agriculture and food security. It would make a sustainable use of neglected water resources. It would attract visitors. And if, as well, it helped the rural economy, that would be a real contribution to the UAE’s drive for sustainability.
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Fanney Khan
Producer: T-Series, Anil Kapoor Productions, ROMP, Prerna Arora
Director: Atul Manjrekar
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rajkummar Rao, Pihu Sand
Rating: 2/5
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The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Closing the loophole on sugary drinks
As The National reported last year, non-fizzy sugared drinks were not covered when the original tax was introduced in 2017. Sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, 20 grams of sugar per 500ml bottle.
The non-fizzy drink AriZona Iced Tea contains 65 grams of sugar – about 16 teaspoons – per 680ml can. The average can costs about Dh6, which would rise to Dh9.
Drinks such as Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino contain 31g of sugar in 270ml, while Nescafe Mocha in a can contains 15.6g of sugar in a 240ml can.
Flavoured water, long-life fruit juice concentrates, pre-packaged sweetened coffee drinks fall under the ‘sweetened drink’ category
Not taxed:
Freshly squeezed fruit juices, ground coffee beans, tea leaves and pre-prepared flavoured milkshakes do not come under the ‘sweetened drink’ band.
Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
Company Profile
Founders: Tamara Hachem and Yazid Erman
Based: Dubai
Launched: September 2019
Sector: health technology
Stage: seed
Investors: Oman Technology Fund, angel investor and grants from Sharjah's Sheraa and Ma'an Abu Dhabi
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
'Tell the Machine Goodnight' by Katie Williams
Penguin Randomhouse
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
The specs: 2017 Porsche 718 Cayman
Price, base / as tested Dh222,500 / Dh296,870
Engine 2.0L, flat four-cylinder
Transmission Seven-speed PDK
Power 300hp @ 6,500rpm
Torque 380hp @ 1,950rpm
Fuel economy, combined 6.9L / 100km
More on Quran memorisation:
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Business Insights
- As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses.
- SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income.
- Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.
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Who has lived at The Bishops Avenue?
- George Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, sugar magnate William Park Lyle and actress Dame Gracie Fields were residents in the 1930s when the street was only known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’.
- Then came the international super rich, including the last king of Greece, Constantine II, the Sultan of Brunei and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal who was at one point ranked the third richest person in the world.
- Turkish tycoon Halis Torprak sold his mansion for £50m in 2008 after spending just two days there. The House of Saud sold 10 properties on the road in 2013 for almost £80m.
- Other residents have included Iraqi businessman Nemir Kirdar, singer Ariana Grande, holiday camp impresario Sir Billy Butlin, businessman Asil Nadir, Paul McCartney’s former wife Heather Mills.
Hunting park to luxury living
- Land was originally the Bishop of London's hunting park, hence the name
- The road was laid out in the mid 19th Century, meandering through woodland and farmland
- Its earliest houses at the turn of the 20th Century were substantial detached properties with extensive grounds
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