According to the annual award's website, Alqasmi, 49, will earn $50,000 and cash from the prize committee to translate the book.

The Omani peasant Salem bin Abdullah is portrayed in the film "The Water Diviner" as his neighborhood employs him to locate groundwater supplies.

It talks about topics including flooding and concerns with water shortage.

According to Mohammed Achaari, the head of the judging panel, "The Water Diviner" by Zahran Alqasmi "explores a new subject in modern fiction: water and its impact on the natural environment and the lives of humans in hostile regions."

Now in its 16th year, the award has never before been won by an Omani. 

Alqasmi, who has written four novels and ten volumes of poetry, is the first.

At a ceremony in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, he was named this year's winner.

The work also focused, according to Alqasmi, in an interview for the prize's website, "on how women also caused changes in the life of the main protagonist."

According to the organizers, each of the other five selected authors from Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Libya, and Egypt will earn $10,000.

Abu Dhabi sponsors the prize.