The lost emirate

Most people have never heard of Umm Al Quwain. Even for those living in the UAE, it's a place that barely gets a mention from one year to the next. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are thriving business hubs, Fujairah is the "Eastern" emirate, Ras Al Khaimah is the mountainous place in the north, and Ajman is the one with the Hole-in-the-Wall, an illegal (though tolerated) alcohol shop greatly loved and patronised by western expats on the Ajman booze-run.

So what of Umm Al Quwain? Google tells us that it has just 40,000 people, covers just one per cent of the UAE's total landmass, that it is of some archaeological interest and is ruled by a Sheikh Rashid ibn Ahmad Al Mu'alla, whoever he may be.

But now we learn that is in fact a place of thriving industry, doing a roaring trade in fake Zam-Zam water. Zam Zam is the Islamic equivalent of Lourdes, a mystical spring with magical life-giving water, which is bottled and sold to Muslims around the world. Unfortuantely, batches of bottles seized in Ras Al Khaimah and tested in Sharjah appear to be little more than Umm Al Quwain eau-non-potable:

“The section has recently started a large-scale campaign to impound the water after receiving indisputable information indicating that it was bottled in Umm Al Quwain and not Makkah,” a municipality official, who requested anonymity, told Khaleej Times.

"The bacteriological and chemical tests carried in Sharjah indicated that the water doesn’t conform to the country’s hygiene specifications and has a high degree of salinity."