RAK villagers plead for lights on busy roads

Village is happy with slow pace of life, but would like to see lighted roads for safety.

Workers in the distance add an arm carrying electricity transmission lines to this transmission tower in Lahzoom, Ras al Khaimah. Jeff Topping / The National

RAS AL KHAIMAH // The population of Lahzoom consists of Eidam Mussabah and her husband, her brother and his wife, her mother and father, 80 goats, six cows, four farmers, a maid, an "old man" and several children.

The hamlet has no internet and the family only got electricity in 1996, but they ask for little. Lights on the roads are one of the few improvements they want.

"We know there will be new roads, but do they understand that we need lights?" Eidam said. "There are a lot of trucks. It is a big problem at night."

A man in his early 20s from a neighbouring village died a few weeks earlier on the road outside Eidam's village. "That road is a problem," said Eidam's husband, Mussabah Abdulla. "At night you can't see anything."

The family's other concern is pollution from the quarries. "There's lots of dust at night and at 5am," Mussabah said. "We don't believe they use the filter."

The family has no plans to move. They have a farm where they grow alfafa and date palms.

Eidam's mother Fatima talks of Lahzoom like a suburb of Showka, a village a few kilometres away. "We have Showka nearby but it's nice for us to be outside," said Fatima. "All our goats are here."