Syrian government suspends gas distribution in Damascus
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – Residents of the Syrian capital Damascus are afraid of the return of the domestic gas crisis with the approaching winter, after the government Directorate of Fuel suspended distribution via smart cards.
The Directorate of Fuel stopped delivering domestic gas canisters via smart cards more than a week ago, local sources told North Press.
Distribution mechanism
In February, the Ministry of Oil and Natural Resources of the Syrian government approved a new mechanism for distributing domestic gas via a smart card.
The mechanism informs the recipient of the availability of the gas cylinder via text message when the cardholder’s turn comes.
It was initially assumed that the turn of each card holder will come every 23 days, but the period was extended first to 45 and then to 60 days shortly after the implementation of the mechanism.
At that time, the Ministry launched the “Win” application for the smart card, through which one can know the number of individuals ahead of them in the queue and the approximate date of the arrival of the gas message and its receipt.
Constant numbers
Residents of Damascus confirmed that the turn numbers do not change, which suggests that the process of gas distribution was suspended more than a week ago.
Ghaida’a al-A’edi (a pseudonym), a resident of Rukn al-Din neighborhood, said that she has not received any messages for over two months, “while I am supposed to have received a message for nearly two weeks.”
“There are 500 cards before mine, and I should receive the message within a day or two, but the number has remained the same for more than 10 days,” she told North Press.
The situation is the same with Ali Walid (a pseudonym), a resident of the Sarouja neighborhood in the ancient city of Damascus, whose name is only preceded by 200 cards, but the number has been constant for 10 days.
One of the distributors accredited to the Directorate of Fuel for gas distribution revealed that the directorate has been refraining from delivering its allocations amounting to 500 gas cylinders per day for more than 10 days.
“We visit the distributing center every day to obtain our allocations, but this is not done under the pretext that gas is not available and the packing process was suspended,” he added, preferring not to reveal his name.
This comes at a time when the Syrian Trade Corporation announced the implementation of a mechanism for distributing subsidized sugar and rice via smart card to reduce crowding in front of distribution centers.
Public problem
The corporation announced that starting from the beginning of the next month, messages will be sent to receive the two items within 48 hours of the date of receiving the message, and “according to certain duty controls.”
Most of the Syrian government-held areas are experiencing similar crises, but to varying degrees.
On July 11, the Syrian government suspended the distribution of sugar and rice to the residents of the city of Aleppo and restricted the distribution to the employees working in its institutions only.
However, a few days ago, the government returned and suspended the distribution of the two items via smart card to the employees as well.