Part 1

With the exception of a few prominent merchants and the ruling family who had homes made of earth or clay, the majority lived in barasti houses fashioned from the large leafy branches of the date palm trees. This type of housing was used until the late 19605 when Sheikh Zayed became the ruler and city planning began in Abu Dhabi. Of course there were no modern amenities such as water or electricity. People used wood, brought in on the back of camels by the bedouin, as fuel for their cooking fires. The Al Ain and Liwa areas had ample supplies of fresh water. In Abu Dhabi, however, brackish water for drinking, cooking or bathing was drawn either from shallow wells dug within the confines of the house or its enclosure, or hauled from deeper communal wells located at some distance from the settlement. The water, although filtered through the sand and not quite as salty as the sea, was still sea water and not pure or clean like today's drinking water. Nevertheless, people had to drink it as there was no other alternative. In fact, the people of Abu Dhabi drank brackish water, drawn from their wells, until the first desalination plant began producing fresh water in 1961.