"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [ظ‎‎٣‎٢‎٨] (٨٦٢/٦٥٩)

PORTS AND INLAND TOWNS
51 °
north and south Ashar. Numerous foot-bridges cross the smaller
creeks which intersect the town. The primary and secondary schools
are in Ashar.
Maqil town consists of the residential quarter south-west of the
port and railway area of Maqil, and of the Arab village on the water-
front. The road plan was laid out in the War of 1914-1918 and con
sists of four or five broad avenues running west from King Faisal
road which bounds the port area to the parallel Sutton road. To the
south is the zone known as Makina. The Basra passenger railway
station is on the northern outskirts of Maqil, and the Civil Airport
is north of the railway station. The R.A.F. cantonment is on the river
bank below the port. There are many European bungalows standing
in gardens.
The suburb or village of Jubaila, facing the Shatt al Arab astride
the Jubaila creek below Maqil, is a huddle of mud houses and reed
huts; ‘Jubaila’ barracks is a mile to the south-west in Makina.
Manawi village is a similar cluster north of the Khora creek below
Ashar; Rubat Saghir is an inland suburb on the Khandaq creek west
of Ashar. Ikhwat Razana is a larger village half a mile north-west
of Basra City.
There is no sewage system in the area, though most of the better
houses have cesspits. Water is provided by pumping stations from
the Shatt al Arab, cleansed by chlorination and sedimentation. The
main plant at Jubaila supplies both the port and the towns of Ashar
and Basra. The R.A.F. cantonment at Maqil has its own pumping
station and supply. Electricity for light and power are supplied by a
modern power station at Jubaila (440 and 220 volts D.C., 400 A.C.);
there is electric street lighting in the main streets of all the towns and
many villages of the Basra area.
Hospitals include the well-equipped Maude Memorial Hospital
(251 beds) and the Isolation Hospital (150 beds) on the south-western
fringe of Basra City, an Eye Hospital (28 beds), and a V.D. hospital
for women (25 beds).
Commerce and Industry
The greater part of the local population is maintained directly or
indirectly by commerce and the activities of the port, and by the date
packing industry. The packing and shipment of dates absorbs all
available labour at harvest time, when there is also a great influx of
tribesmen as casual labour. The bulk of the country’s export and
import trade is handled by Basra (p. 490). This trade was principally