QAMISHLI/HASAKAH, Syria ( North Press) – It is more than two months while Youssef Ali, 30, awaits to get a household gas cylinder at the commune of his neighborhood in the city of Qamishli, northeastern Syria. He fears that could prolong as it happened some months ago.
The commune is a social unit established by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). It is made up of a number of committees in a neighborhood whose duties are rendering services to the people of the neighborhood.
Standing under the scorching heat of the sun, Ali said he cannot but buy a gas cylinder from the black market at 30.000-35.000 Syrian Pounds (SYP).
People in northeast Syria suffer from delays in distributing gas cylinders in the local communes which sometimes takes a two-month period.
The communes in northeast Syria enroll names of families to get household gas cylinders and heating oil.
The rich buy them from the black market, while the poor use primitive kinds of heaters that depend on kerosene.
Others make use of electricity to cook on electric cooking heaters to save gas for the dark days, however, that depends on the power which is rationed extensively.
Nidal Loqo, who is in charge of gas distribution in Qamishli, attributed the reason of delays to the reduce in amounts of gas in Qamishli and other cities, due to the rapid increase in population in the region compared to previous years.
The gas factory in the Sweidikeh area in the countryside of the city of al-Malikiyah (Derik) is the only facility that supplies northeast Syria with gas, as officials of the AANES said.
In an earlier statement by Muhammad Sadeq Amin, co-chair of the Fuels Management Directorate of the AANES said that “Gas will be imported from the Kurdistan Regional Government to cover the local needs as the extracted gas from northeast Syria do not suffice the local needs.”
Loqo added that they get 44.000 gas cylinders per month that are distributed to commissioners in 33 authorized centers, adding 2.000 cylinders for humanitarian and AANES institutions.
Some people wonder how there is a lack in production while gas is available in the black market excessively?
Then, gas commissioners deliver the cylinders to the communes to be handed over to the locals attached to the commune based on data of the cards given previously.
According to Loqo, every 40-45 days gas is delivered to locals.
In Tel Hajar village in the city of Hasakah, Fatima Sheikho, 60, said the commune they attached to has not registered empty gas cylinders for three months, without known reasons.
Fatima’s family which is made up of five members was obliged to buy a gas cylinder from the free market at 25.000 SYP “we cook reduced amounts to save gas.”
The electric cooking heater is used and sometimes the babor, “we live in a country floats on petrol, nonetheless, there are neither gas nor fuel available.”
Locals say cylinders of the black market are not full like those delivered by communes not to mention its increased prices that differ from city to another while they are sold in communes at 3500 SYP.
Hussam al-Jirdi, co-chair of the Fuels Committee in Hasakah noted to the lack of production amid an increase in population in the city.
Every month, around 36.000 cylinders are delivered to Hasakah, “while we need nearly 50.000,” according to al-Jirdi.