Overcrowding in gas centers in Qamishli; Fuel Committee has no solution
Qamishli – North-Press Agency
Muhammad Habash
Reem Hassan, co-chair of Qamishli Fuel Committee, said on Tuesday that "there is no solution regarding the gas crisis at the moment,” at a time when northeastern Syria is under lockdown in order to avoid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
The city of Qamishli is experiencing an unprecedented crisis due to the lack of household gas. Dozens of residents are forced to queue in front of gas distribution centers despite the quarantine decision in the Autonomous Administration areas which came into force for the second consecutive day.
Ms. Hassan added that the reduction in the amount of the allocated gas by the Fuel Department intensified the crisis, as it reduced the amount of gas canisters allocated to Qamishli by 8,000.
The Fuel Committee distributes gas canisters through neighborhood councils (communes) spread throughout the city’s neighborhoods, on which the Autonomous Administration relies as the smallest cell in its administrative system.
Ms. Hassan noted that the committee was previously distributing gas canisters directly, but after reducing the allocations, it handed the task over to the neighborhood councils, which created a decrease in supply, stressing that, "there is no solution to the gas crisis at the present time,” despite the imposition of the quarantine.
The lockdown decision to avoid the outbreak of coronavirus epidemic in northeastern Syria came into effect on Monday, and units of the Internal Security Forces (Asayish) and Traffic Police were deployed in all neighborhoods and streets of the city of Qamishli to monitor the implementation of the decision.
Lukman Othman, a resident of the Judi neighborhood in eastern Qamishli, said that he had to travel a long distance to reach a gas distribution center after passing through three checkpoints of the security forces because of the lack of gas in his neighborhood.
He added with a resentful tone: "They imposed a lockdown in the city, but the basic resources must reach our neighborhoods; we are also afraid of coronavirus, but what can we do, these problems must be solved!”
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria announced that the lockdown, which was decided on Thursday and began on Monday, will continue for 15 days, which can be extended if necessary.
North-Press was unable to communicate with the head of Health Authority in al-Jazira Region to get direct information about the danger of residents’ gathering in front of gas distribution centers at the present time, but previous statements by the head of the Authority and the Autonomous Administration had warned the population from gathering and crowding in general.