Faint flames in kitchens, long lines at pumps: Gas crisis frustrates citizens and drivers

In a tin-shed room in the Amtola area of Mirpur, there are a total of eight rooms accommodating eight families. The eight families share a single kitchen, which houses a gas stove with two burners.

The women of the eight families take turns cooking on that stove. However, the gas pressure is so low that finishing the cooking for just a single family takes hours. As a result, members of the next family have to wait right by the stove. Some are even failing to get a chance to cook at all.

Shirin Begum was sitting and cooking in that kitchen at around 12:30pm today, on Thursday. She had started cooking around 11:00am and even after an hour and a half, a single dish was not yet finished. In one pot on the stove, she was simmering small fish and in another, she was heating water. Once that water boiled, she would add rice to cook it.

Shirin said that the gas pressure is so low that rice cannot be cooked by putting water and rice directly on the stove. Water must be heated first, after which rice is added to somehow manage the cooking. Even after finishing the fish curry, it takes about another hour for the rice to be done. Frustrated with the cooking due to the gas crisis, Shirin said, "It takes the whole day just to cook once."

Before Shirin, Reshma Begum had cooked on the same stove. Along with cooking fish curry, taro with prawns and rice, she also finished cooking for the night all at once. She started cooking at 8:00am and finished around 11:00am.

Reshma stated that she and Shirin are housewives. Among the others, women from three families work in readymade garment factories, one works as a domestic help, and another works at a shop with her husband. Women who go out to work are facing the worst suffering due to the gas crisis.

"We stay home and cook at a slow pace. The suffering is greater for the girls who go to work. They have to get up and start cooking at four in the morning. Often the stove doesn't even light, gas remains low, and the rice and curry do not cook," Reshma said.

Not just in Amtola, people are facing cooking problems due to the gas crisis in various areas in Dhaka. In some places, the gas pressure on the stoves is so low that cooking takes several times longer than usual. In other places, gas is unavailable for a large part of the day.

The impact of the gas crisis has also fallen on CNG stations. Drivers are waiting for hours in long queues for gas. Due to the lack of gas, some stations are having to remain closed. Coupled with this, daytime and night-time load shedding is further compounding the misery.

Fahima Akhter, a resident of the Senpara area in Mirpur, has also seen her cooking schedule change. She said that previously, if she started cooking around 12:00pm, it would finish between 1:00pm and 1:30pm.

Now, less than 30 per cent of the gas compared to before is available. Two burners cannot be operated simultaneously. If one burner is kept off, some gas comes through the other. Because of this, Fahima stated that she has to finish breakfast and start cooking for both lunch and dinner around 10:00am.

The gas crisis has even changed her family's breakfast habits. Fahima said, "In the morning, my husband eats panta (leftover soaked rice). So there is no hassle with my husband's breakfast before he goes to the office. Ever since the gas problem started, my son has also started eating panta with his father."

Much like the kitchens, the picture of the gas crisis was visible at the CNG stations in Mirpur. Due to low gas pressure, filling a single vehicle takes several minutes. As a result, long queues are forming inside and outside the stations.

Mohammad Akash, a dispenser operator at the Mirpur Ceramics Refueling and Conversion Centre, said that the gas pressure today is even lower than the past few days. Over the past few days, the pressure was 80 to 90. Today, the maximum being received is 70.

He stated that under this pressure, filling a 60-kilogram cylinder with gas worth 180 to 200 takas takes three to four minutes. Although each dispenser has two connections, gas is not being dispensed into two vehicles simultaneously because doing so causes the pressure to drop even further. In that case, a single vehicle takes in gas worth no more than Tk 80-100.

Despite waiting for long hours for gas, drivers are having to return with a meager amount of gas. Private car driver Khorshed Alam stood in line at that station at 8:20am. He got the opportunity to take gas a few minutes past 11:00am, meaning he waited for about two hours and forty minutes. After such a long wait, gas worth Tk 178 went into his car.

Khorshed said, "If the pressure was higher, the car could run for a maximum of 30 kilometers with AC running on this amount of gas. If the AC was kept off, it would run for 38 to 40 kilometers. But when pressure is low, air mixes with the gas. Then it might not even run for 30 kilometers."

Mamun Mia, a passenger bus driver’s sufferings are no less. This driver of Mirpur Super Link said that usually gas worth Tk 2,700 to Tk 2,800 goes into his bus. A few days ago, gas worth Tk 400 to Tk 500 would go in, yet today only Tk 260 worth of gas entered.

Mamun said, "With this gas, we can barely manage to go from Mirpur to Azimpur and back once and even then there is a risk of it running out on the road. What am I supposed to do with this gas now!"

Expressing anger, he said, "If the government is going to cut off gas, they should just shut it off completely. I can't take this misery anymore. A tiny bit of gas achieves nothing. Neither can you drive the bus, nor make any earnings, nor keep the owner's money."

Mamun stated that starting his trips from 6:00am today, he has made one round trip from Mirpur to Azimpur and back to Mirpur from Azimpur.

Due to the lack of gas pressure, the Minerva CNG Station and Shahjalal CNG Filling Station in Mirpur were seen remaining closed. Rafiqul Islam, an employee at Shahjalal CNG Station, said that gas was available from 1:00am to 5:00am.

Gas was dispensed to vehicles during that time. Since then, there is no gas in the lines.

Meanwhile, at the Aria CNG Filling Station, long queues of vehicles were seen. There, 39 private cars and 43 CNG-run auto-rickshaws were waiting for gas. The line of auto-rickshaws had even spilled over to the opposite side of the road.