{"id":8719,"date":"2015-06-02T07:33:58","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T12:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=8719"},"modified":"2015-06-02T07:33:58","modified_gmt":"2015-06-02T12:33:58","slug":"oasis-at-risk-omans-ancient-water-channels-are-drying-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=8719","title":{"rendered":"Oasis at Risk: Oman\u2019s Ancient Water Channels Are Drying Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/e360.yale.edu\/feature\/oasis_at_risk_omans_ancient_water_channels_are_drying_up\/2880\/\" target=\"_blank\">Oasis at Risk: Oman\u2019s Ancient\u00a0Water Channels Are Drying Up<\/a><\/h3>\n<p class=\"dek\"><strong><em>Since pre-Islamic times, Oman\u2019s water systems known as aflaj have brought water from the mountains and made the desert bloom. But now, unregulated pumping of groundwater is depleting aquifers and causing the long-reliable channels to run dry.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">It was 47 degrees Celsius. Make that 117 degrees Fahrenheit. In mid-May, the desert of northern Oman may have been the hottest place on the planet. But in the shade of the oasis, the temperature was dramatically cooler. Ali Al Muharbi, in his white robes and beard, beamed as he showed me around the date palms. All were irrigated by water gurgling down a channel dug many centuries ago to tap underground water in the nearby Hajar mountains.<\/p>\n<p>In Oman, a country on the shores of the Arabian Sea, these magical waters conjured from the most arid land imaginable are called \u201cunfailing springs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"imageleft\">\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/e360.yale.edu\/slideshow\/oasis_at_risk_omans_ancient_water_channels_are_drying_up\/462\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>View Gallery<\/strong><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/e360.yale.edu\/images\/features\/IMG_2337-250.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250px\" height=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"credit\">Fred Pearce<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption\">Ali Al Muharbi (right) says the flow in his water channels has been decreasing.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">Even in the worst droughts, flows persist down the underground tunnels to the surface channels that course through the villages and fields. These pre-Islamic feats of hydraulic engineering remain the only water supply for many villages. Even large towns owe their existence to the perpetually flowing waters. The systems, which remain independent of the state and are run entirely by village communities, are known individually as\u00a0<em>falaj<\/em>, and collectively by the plural\u00a0<em>aflaj<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oasis at Risk: Oman\u2019s Ancient\u00a0Water Channels Are Drying Up Since pre-Islamic times, Oman\u2019s water systems known as aflaj have brought water from the mountains and made the desert bloom. But now, unregulated pumping of groundwater is depleting aquifers and causing the long-reliable channels to run dry. It was 47 degrees Celsius. Make that 117 degrees [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5492,5964,3816,220,4208,5963,866],"class_list":["post-8719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-aquifers","tag-arabian-sea","tag-desert","tag-drought","tag-groundwater","tag-oman","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8720,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8719\/revisions\/8720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}