Humidity on Fire

humidity fog encircles Fanar

 

I'm inside my peaceful apartment when the alarm goes off. Get out get out get out! it shrieks.

 

Mid-September in Doha. Outside temperatures hover just above hell and death. Humid, boiling air shimmers, a pavement tornado. Hair wilts. Shoes melt. Water courses down buildings, fogs window panes, puddles on sidewalks.

 

Hot is sunshine, warmth, rosy cheeks. Humidity is clothing glued to slick, greasy skin.

 

Love the hot. The humidity? Not so much.

 

The boardwalk below my window is empty as a world of people seek relief from the boiling, burning steaminess in air conditioned interior Doha. Where always on AC's hum icy wind into corners. And temperatures range from cool-and-breezy to Alaska-meets-Antarctica levels. I huddle in a thick blanket wearing fuzzy socks and a sweatshirt. Goosebumps rise on my arms and legs. My scalp tingles.

 

I am polar ice wrapped in equatorial fire.

 

I turn off the AC and the ice in my nose melts. I remove the blanket, toss aside the socks. Comfortable - but only for a moment.

 

When muggy air stops moving, summer smells like warm bread and beach morph rapidly into moldy shower and old meat. Spicy food scents shuffle in through the ceiling and walls and make me sneeze. The kitchen vent bleats open/shut/open/shut as laborers toiling over yet another roof construction project allow sultry air in/out/in/out. Sweat mounts the hair on my arms and bubbles at my scalp. The wet tickles.

 

I flip the AC back on. But this time I also open the balcony door.

 

Sweltering air mixes with frosty wind like hot and cold tap water. Soon the environment is a perfect combination of winter's chill and summer's scorch. I move easily from the air conditioned balcony to the heated living room. I am a grassy bank in the American Midwest Fall, a trip to the lake in the Missouri USA Spring. Feet tapping cool water, skin caressed by the perfect breeze. Garnished with just enough hot.

 

I fold the blanket, toss socks and sweaty shirt into the laundry, dance across the living room.

 

The alarm is shrill and sudden, a horn in my ear. Lights flash at the intercom. Fire? The hallway outside my apartment is silent.

 

I search the single bedroom, living room, kitchen, bath, laundry space. No fire, no embers, no smoke, no place to hide.

 

I call the front desk. The receptionist yawns. "Someone will come," she says. In sha allah. "No worries."

 

Head throbbing from the shrieking alarm, I slam and lock doors, stumble down two flights of stairs, run across a garage, descend two additional floors and hurry through a hall to the front desk. "There's a fire in my apartment," I say. Maybe?

 

"He is coming," says the receptionist. She shrugs. "Never mind."

 

I reverse the journey, return to the apartment. The alarm is off. The frozen room hums. Let it go, it seems to say.

 

Twenty minutes later a single security guard arrives, wearing a coat. He wanders the apartment, peeks into corners. "Did you open the door, ma'am?" His voice accuses.

 

I nod.

 

He shakes his head, sighs. "It's the humidity, Ma'am. But do not worry. If it was a real fire, we would come."

 

I reach for my blanket, a clean pair of fuzzy socks. Another sweatshirt. The cold never bothered me anyway, I think.

 

Only…it's not true.

 

 

Read more about (my experience with) Doha's weather: 

On 86% Humidity

Hot and Hotter: Doha Weather

Inside Day

5 Doha Whys

"Why" is the Doha Expat's four letter word. Why don't people merge on the highway? Why does the road end? Why do locals drive like that? Why don't meetings start on time? Why is a mega yacht docked outside my window?

 

approx. 1/3 of mega yacht Nirvana

Most of the time there is no answer to the Expat Why - and when there is, answers are often inconsistent or the question deemed unimportant: ma sha' allah habibtee, you must relax. It is as God wills.

 

Still and But - after all this time there remain a few things I'm curious about. Here are my current top five Doha Whys:

 

Palm Tree Island

1. Why is the circle of earth in the middle of Doha Bay called Palm Tree Island when it's nothing but sand, dirt and one lone Eucalyptus?

 

(Sample responses:)

 

The island was once a park accessed only by dhow from the Corniche. Families flocked for Friday slides, swings, beach, grass, restaurants - and a Ferris wheel! When a sheikh's son died in a freak accident, the park was levelled to earth by decree.

 

um, there used to be Palm Trees?

 

The park was bulldozed to make way for something better but they had to remodel the rest of Doha (all at once) first.

 

I don't know, habibtee, ma'alesh, mafee mushkillah, no problem, sit, have some tea.

 

West Bay and rain clouds from The Pearl

2. Why is it still so cold and wet? It's nearly April!

 

The changing weather has something to do with the rotation of the earth, the upside down moon and God.

 

Rain is life.

 

All of the planting and watering has changed the atmosphere.

 

Murphy's Law - since historically there is very little rain in this desert country, city planners opted not to include a storm water system. (See actual recent results of a day's downpour on a city with no storm water system by clicking here.) Therefore and henceforth, each year there is rain. Lots and more and ever increasing heaps and gobs of rain. But only for a while. anTatharee, wait habibtee, the sun and hot will soon return in all its plant and mojo killing glory.

 

random building site

3. Why isn't anyone working on this building/highway/tower/unfinished unknown something?

 

It's too far from the heart of the city and therefore construction does not disrupt traffic patterns enough.

 

Contractor stopped for prayer, got stuck in traffic and ended up on a different project.

 

Locals own 51% of all businesses. To keep gifted land, construction must commence within a particular time frame; once a project is completed and/or fully occupied it's no longer governmentally subsidized so some owners stop work before the cash waterfall dries up.

 

watch out for the truck? and

two guys watering the pavement

4. Why is this guy(s) (sitting/standing/waving a flag/watching that other guy dig a hole/sand a board/hammer a nail)?

 

It's his turn to watch.

 

To assure that all drivers see the truck/brick wall/turn prior to impact - or, at the absolute latest - soon thereafter.

 

Someone told him to.

 

There are always groups of what appear to be workers standing/sitting/crouching beside people who appear to be working.

5. Why did (the owner) stop taking care of The Pearl's little beach?

 

pretty beach 2013

 

broken beach 2014

splintered and missing chairs, shredded and severed umbrellas

 

Chairs will be returned tomorrow.

 

You want beach membership application?

 

Maybe use pool now.

 

(See sample responses to #3.)

Hot and Hotter: Doha Weather

Bob sweats in out at the dunes

June, 2012

 

First, it's true what "they" say about Doha July and August.  The sun rises at 4am and is fireball hot by 9am.  Heat and humidity mingle to waterfall down the sides of buildings and puddle into a moat outside doors and windows.  Skin bubbles with wet as you step outside and freezes into dandruffy crystals when you reenter.  The sea doesn't boil - not exactly - but a dip in the simmering Gulf doesn't offer relief from the crushing, microwave-like, skin, hair and eyebrow burning sun.

 

The hottest day I've experienced is 129F, with humidity.  I went for a run; crawled back.

 

There is a plus: many locals and others leave the city in July and August, so historically there's very little traffic.

 

In March and April, the wind picks up.  Sand blows in horizontal lines across the horizon, obscuring the sun, hiding buildings and the bay outside my window.  Gritty stuff creeps under windows and doors, coats patios and living room coffee tables.  Sand drifts in great blizzardy mounds across the road and everyone - everyone - covers faces.

 

patio sand writing: awwww!

 

In May and June the sun takes first steps toward its great, grand summer crescendo.  These brilliant-skied months feel like California, USA beach and pool season - but the danger is deceptive.  Burning rays will baste basking skin.  Wear sunscreen.  Lots of sunscreen.

 

Predictably unpredictable, hot, sandy, sweaty, dangerous.  Until…one day in September you notice your clothes aren't as wet as you walk across the parking lot to your car.  The air conditioning doesn't seem as arctic.  There are trucks full of rich, black, life producing earth rumbling toward roadway medians.  Men with shovels dig flower beds outside government offices.  Branches covered in rose hued blooms cascade over walls.  And there are…people.  Walking the Corniche at 11am, feeding the ducks in Aspire Park at all hours.  There are families about on Friday, children on the Ramallah Park swings, evening activities in Heritage Park, women strolling the boardwalk under my window late into the night.

 

It's Winter in Doha.

 

a family picnics at the Corniche, November 2012

 

Doha winter is payback for July and August, compensation for March and April, a daydream wish on a sweaty June day.  It's the longest running, most beloved Doha season, spanning September-ish into March-ish.  Doha winter is a blue skied, floral filled wonder.  It's Christmas and Easter, first and second Eid and a family wedding rolled into one great, grand celebration worthy offering.

 

There is beach sun from 11am-2pm.  The sea is cool and refreshing.  There are flowers in pots and along the sides of the road.  The daytime sun is warm and inviting.  It's jogging, sweater, let's go dune-bashing/camping at the Inland Sea weather.

 

And sometimes, when the people have been very good - like this year - there's…RAIN.  Which means: TRUFFLES.

 

"…Every year, if there is sufficient rain early in the winter season, truffles form just under the sandy or rocky desert surface, and searching for them is a local family pastime…"

Frances Gillespie, Hidden Delicacies of the Desert

 

Of course, warm, like cold, wealth and what constitutes an acceptable serving of Blue Bunny Chunky Chocolate Chip ice cream - is relative.  If you're accustomed to thermometer readings that zoom toward 129F, temperatures in the 60s and 70s (Fahrenheit) may feel like winter coat, hat and glove season.

 

too busy enjoying the beautiful Doha winter to take pics of guys in coats

here's a racing camel instead

 

But if you've been parked in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, where winter means negative double digit cold (without considering wind chill!) plus snow and ice and an endless season of no-sun, chubby-making indoor activities…temperatures in the 60s, 70s - or even 40s and 50s (Fahrenheit) - under a clear, slate blue sky - or rain!...feels like a vacation.

 

pretty Doha winter day

Looking forward to playing outside again!

 

Qatar's Water: is it safe to drink?

rooftop water tanks, business location overlooking Doha's West Bay

 

A 60-year old maintenance worker was cleaning inside a neighborhood water tank.  The ladder broke.  He fell:

 

"A dead body was found…inside a water reservoir at a residential building in Al Wakra, after residents there complained that murky water had been flowing through their faucets for at least two days…The water was smelling very bad - So bad that the smell spread throughout my house..."

dohanews.co

 

Qatar is a peninsula country, surrounded by water.  Lots and lots of water.  Yet clean, sweet, drinkable liquid is a precious commodity - for three primary reasons:

 

Location:  the country inhabits a desert near the hottest part of the planet.

Moisture:  Rain is rare.

Content:  the sea surrounding the country is very, very salty.

 

Salty enough to:

• burn eyes
• dry hair and skin
• clean wounds
• pickle a cucumber, season a kiss

 

dhow: pearling vessel

Once upon a time, Qataris were Bedouins who herded camels and goats in the desert.  They subsisted on camel milk, dates, imported rice and locally caught fish.  Fresh, sweet drinking water was shipped into the country from Bahrain.  Seafarers rationed potable liquid for long journeys into the Gulf, where pearl divers leapt into the sea as many as 100 times a day for months at a time.  The briny water burned hair off heads, dried skin, carved wrinkles into sun browned faces.

Life was hard.

Then one day there was oil and gas.

 

And people.  From the West, East and everywhere in between.  With cars that needed roads to link neighborhoods full of buildings with kitchens, bathrooms, gardens, pets and vegetation.

 

All of which needed water.

 

It was quickly determined that the odd well, aquifer or country-to-country dhow service wouldn't satisfy the needs of the rapidly growing community.  A water treatment system was required.

 

Here's what I've learned about Qatar's water production and distribution system:

 

The country continues to rely on groundwater as well as recycled water (ie, "treated sewage effluent") for irrigation and other purposes, but desalinated (a process whereby the salt is removed from sea water) liquid is its primary resource for drinking water.  Since 1995 (when, coincidentally, former Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani succeeded to power, expat population expanded and urbanization increased) use of desalinated water has tripled in Qatar.^[1]

 

Desalination plants usually do not treat raw sea water, but "brackish water" or water drawn from alluvial wells near the sea.  It's lower in sodium content, has less organics, and is thus easier to treat.

- Curtis Gentile

 

In 1953, Qatar had five sea water desalination plants with a total capacity of 150040 gallons/day.  Today's plants have a capacity exceeding 327 MIGD ("million imperial gallons per day").^[2]  The desalination plant at Ras Laffan opened 31 May 2011 and uses a "multi-effect distillation/thermal vapour compression" system.^[3]  At the time it was the largest power and water plant in the country.

 

Doha's drinking water is primarily a bi-product of the gas-to-liquid conversion process at Ras Laffan.  Condensing the gas generates lots of heat, and raw sea water is pumped to the reactors for cooling. The sea water evaporates (boils) in the process, and the condensate is captured, treated and pumped to Doha through multiple water mains.  Pretty ingenious, huh?

- Curtis Gentile

 

In May 2013, development of a new sea water distillation plant began in Ras Abu Fontas.  The plant will produce 36 MIGD of desalinated water and is expected to open in 2015.^[4]

 

Today Qatar rides the fast track to modern.  That means a place that little more than 60 years ago had one main street market now boasts high rise office buildings, apartments, villas, tennis courts and spas.  Residents live comfortably with electricity, cell phones, malls, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, flushing toilets, hot and cold running water, ice cream, lush gardens, a zoo and a water park.  Even the most rural desert bound tent dweller has a generator, internet and cable tv - with boxy air conditioners affixed to the canvas-like fabric.

 

watering

In some areas, pipes carry fresh water from water treatment facilities to homes and businesses while a separate system of pipes carries waste away.  In locations where services haven't yet reached the neighborhood, a gravity fueled water tank provides potable water.  A convoy of trucks fill tanks with clean, sweet drinkable stuff while a separate system of trucks empty underground tanks of waste.

Sewage is stored temporarily in underground tanks before being sucked out with a Vac Truck.  Qatar does have waste water treatment plants. They don't yet have a comprehensive collection system (sewers, manholes, pump stations) to get the sewage there.

- Curtis Gentile

 

 

yum!

 

In 2011, Kahramaa (the country's water company) claimed that "Qatar may have the highest rate of water consumption in the world per capita, at 430 liters a day." ^[5]  Two years later, in January 2013, Qatar's Supreme Council of Health completed a study involving 3500 samples of Qatar's tap water.  With only traces of non-toxic dust and dirt the country's water was determined safe to drink. ^[6]

 

Distribution systems are often the source of water quality problems anywhere (not just Qatar). Qatar's water seems more susceptible to quality problems due to the many relatively small storage tanks located on the roofs of houses and buildings (baking in the sun).

- Curtis Gentile

 

While Bob and I do drink bottled water, we also fill mugs at the park, tip containers (glasses, coffee pots and ice cube trays) under the faucet and cup hands in the sink.  Generally speaking, Qatar's water is sweet, clean and safe to drink.

 

Unless it's brown and smells bad.  Then we don't drink it.

 

Our Cabinet Stash

Sources: 



Curtis Gentile is a civil engineer with many years' experience in management of  projects involving water and power supply, waste water, storm water, flood management and more in a wide variety of locations, including Doha, Qatar.


Photo: the fabulous Curtis and Mary Gentile in Doha

Other sources:

1 - Qatar is Booming, "Qatar to launch series of water saving initiatives," [http://www.qatarisbooming.com/2011/03/31/qatar-to-launch-series-of-water-saving-initiatives/], July 2103

2 - Fahad Tolefat, "Solutions for Water," [http://www.solutionsforwater.org/solutions/state-of-qatar-experience-in-seawater-desalination-2], July 2013 

3 - Desalination.biz, "MED/TVC desalination plant inaugurated in Qatar," [http://www.desalination.biz/news/news_story.asp?id=5939&title=MED/TVC+desalination+plant+inaugurated+in+Qatar], July 2013 

4 - Qatar Electricity and Water Company, "New Ras Abu Fontas Plant to Open in 2015," [http://www.qewc.com/qewc/en/index.php/qewc/81-other/127-qatar-projects-magazine], July 2013

5 - Omarsc, "Qatar's water usage 'highest in the world' per capita," [http://dohanews.co/post/19625088182/qatars-water-usage-highest-in-the-world-per-capita], July 2013 
6 - Shabinakhatri, "Despite new findings emphasizing quality of Qatar's tap water, debate continues," [http://dohanews.co/post/41187843071/despite-new-findings-emphasizing-quality-of-qatars-tap], July 2013

Cold and Wet in Doha

One day,  it rained.

Not just  a drizzle, not just for an hour.  All. Day. Long.  The sky heavy with low, fat clouds.  Puddle making, skin drenching, chill producing, wet.  Heaven opened flood gates wet.  Tears on my beach wet.

 

West Bay one foggy, rainy day

 

No stormwater system meant pool sized puddles filled streets.  Shoes, socks, jeans, underwear soaked, hair plastered to heads.

 

And still the rain came down and down and down.

 

Foreigners cowered inside under blankets but locals took to the streets.  Walkways were packed with happy groups of men and women in traditional dress, carrying umbrellas, wearing coats.

 

In Arabic class, Qatari Teacher's teenage niece texted her.  "Isn't the weather amazing?"

 

Teacher smiled.  "We prayed for it," she said.  "Water is the essence of life."

 

I shook my head and my life dripped to the floor.

 

Perspective is everything.

 

You see, when "normal" temperatures often exceed 115F - cold and wet isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

Winter in Doha is cool temperatures (mornings as whoa-low as 60F!), rare drops of rain, chill wind with spitting, stinging sand.

 

Security guards in heavy winter coats, ski gloves and thick pants shivering through 12-hour stand-in-one-place shifts. Workers in stocking caps and boots sweeping walkways.
 

 

Sand in teeth during a last time jog with run-everyday-no-matter-what daughter.

 

Long stretches without a Beach Day.  Brown roots showing in fading sun-bleached hair.

 

Space heaters (no central heat in the desert), blankets, leggings, shoes instead of sandals.  Whole rooms constructed of tile means it's colder inside than outside.

 

But then...Doha Winter is also planting, fertilizing, digging, weeding, watering.  Happy flowers.

 

 

Desert camps, falcon events, dune bashing, truffle hunting.  Crowds running the Corniche until 10am.  Beach sun between 10am-2pm.

 

winter camps under a blue desert sky

 

Brown dish-dashas.

 

 

And one day, at least…rain.

 

rainy afternoon at The Pearl