Kathmandu: The City of Scarcity
By Anand Gurung
One sight has become very commonplace in the nation’s capital these days, and it is the long line of motorbikes, taxis and buses stretching, at times, up to two kilometers from petrol stations in the main thoroughfares of the city. This is the worst fuel crisis the city residents ever saw since 1990 when the country went out of petroleum products after India imposed an economic embargo against it which only worked as a catalyst for the democratic movement to follow.
Although the valley residents had been facing drastic shortages of petroleum products including cooking gas from the past one month – sometimes due to Terai bandh (shutdown strike) and more often due to the Indian supplier refusing to send regular shipment of petroleum products [to arm twist Nepal to clear past dues] - they have been forced to reel under additional shortage from the past eight days as the valley depots have almost run out of fuel because of unrest in the politically sensitive Terai region.
Demonstration and vandalism in Terai continues unabated under the banner of the United Madheshi Democratic Front (UMDF), an alliance of three Madheshi parties pressing for more autonomy for Madhesh, causing local administration to deploy large numbers of security forces and enforce curfew to stop the situation to spiral out of control. But despite the tight presence of security forces coupled with the Front deciding to withdraw its violent agitation yesterday, the unrest there has still effectively blocked imports of petroleum products from India or being trucked to Kathmandu on oil containers as the east-west highway has been blocked by the road blocks raised by the agitators.
It’s not that the government has not been doing anything to ease the stark fuel crisis in the main urban centers of the country including Kathmandu where it is most pronounced. The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) brought 25 petroleum tankers ferrying over 300 kiloliters of fuel from Birgunj custom on Tuesday, the seventh day of the general strike in Tarai and then trucked 11 tankers (over 132 KL) to Kathmandu with police escorting, after imposing curfew along the highway. The government has said eight more oil tankers would reach Kathmandu Wednesday evening by which time it expects the fuel crisis to be resolved.
On Tuesday, evening motorbikes, passenger vehicles, taxis, school buses, among others, again stood in long queues in front of seven petrol pumps that received fresh supply of petrol and diesel. Similar queues continued to build at other public refilling stations till late in the night.
Deepak Thapa of Naxal was among the consumers who had come to stand in the long queue that stretched from a petrol station in Kamalpokhari.
“I came here with the hope of getting fuel for my motorbike after I learnt it is going to distribute petrol tonight,” Thapa said while waiting for his turn for a fill up. “I am almost out of fuel and if I don’t get petrol tonight; I may have to walk all the way to my office since there are not enough public vehicles in the streets.”
He said it is frustrating to spend hours in this cold night waiting for his turn for a fill up, but he has no other way he needs to have petrol to ride his motorbike.
A taxi driver from Sindhupalchowk was also in the long queue for petrol at the same petrol station. He was a more vocal kind.
“The last time I refilled my taxi was a week ago. I had to stand in this sort of queue for two days, spending one night in the taxi itself before I finally got the petrol,” the taxi driver said, adding that this was why the cabbies have been forced to charge much above the normal fare to their passengers.
The taxi driver also poured out all his angst over the government.
“But I am sick and tired of standing in queues for petrol every time,” he continued, “Most of the time I am in queue for petrol, when should I go earn a living for my family. We are told that there is bandh in Terai which has caused the shortage of fuel. But we have been hearing this kind of stories from the past one year. It is the leader’s duty to supply petrol and diesel to us. Otherwise, what’s the use of them sitting in the government? We better start another revolution to throw them out from power and find a new one that at least spares us from this problem.”
Meanwhile, irked by the scarcity of petrol and diesel, consumers had organised rallies in various places of Kathmandu earlier that day.
The taxi driver further said that because of unavailability of fuel his two sons have not been able to go to school also as they remain closed because the school buses have no fuel.
Private and Boarding School’s of Nepal (PABSON) president Bhoj Raj Dahal said that more than 70 percent of schools in the valley were forced to close down since Monday owing to the fuel crunch, canceling classes when the school’s final exams including the crucial School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exams are nearing.
“The schools in Kathmandu might reopen once the fuel starts getting easily available, but most of the schools in the Terai and eastern hilly districts remain closed because of the indefinite strike, affecting over 10 lakh students,” Dahal told Nepalnews.com.
The crisis in the supply of petroleum products has started not only to get on the nerves of the people but, has begun to take a serious toll on essential public services, such as transport and hospitals.
With most of the public and private vehicles queuing up for petrol, Kathmandu’s roads have started to wear a somewhat a deserted look, with only few vehicles running. Since Monday only about 10 percent of public buses were running, forcing passengers to even travel on rooftops. While passengers opting to travel comfortably in taxis could only do so after forking out 50 or even 100 rupees more than what it took for the ride during other days.
Alarmingly, even hospitals in the valley have been badly affected due to the tremendous fuel shortage of the past few days.
Dr Mahesh Khakurel, director at the Maharajgunj Teaching Hospital, one of the main public hospital in the valley, says he is finding it very difficult to get his doctors, nurses and other staff to come in the hospital on time as the hospital has virtually run out of diesel to run staff buses, hindering its services badly.
Likewise, the hospital’s ambulance service has been badly hit due to the fuel shortage and what’s more appalling is that the company providing the hospital with oxygen cylinders for patients in its intensive care ward including conducting essential surgeries has said it would supply it with less than half of the necessary amount of oxygen cylinders needed.
A major oxygen manufacturing company even warned last week that if the government doesn't avail diesel to it immediately then soon it won't be able to supply oxygen cylinder to most of the valley's hospital.
Dr Khakurel said the unavailability of diesel is especially a problem for private nursing hospitals as they can’t run backup generators during power cuts owing to it, making it very hard to provide its vital services. Since the Maharajgunj hospital is a government hospital it is at least exempt from daily power cuts.
As private hospitals in Kathmandu have not been able to secure enough diesel for generators they are said to have closed the outpatient departments and reduced ambulance services to try to conserve fuel for essential surgeries, emergency cases and their critical care ward.
The residents of Kathmandu, who most of the times do not bother about what’s happening in the rest of the country, have only lately started to realise what they have to go through if one part of the country destabilises. As if a Pandora’s box had been flung open, the fuel shortage in the valley has been having multiplier negative effects in the life of its residents.
For instance, what can be another cause of worry is that even emergency vehicles like fire engines have started to run out of diesel, Chief Juddha Barunyantra Office, Hari Budhathoki, told one daily recently that they are facing great difficulty in finding fuel for fire engines. He said that it has become his daily routine to visit the home ministry and police headquarters to request that the fire brigade office be supplied with sufficient amount of fuel so that it does not have to remain helpless in the event of a major fire incident in the valley.
"At a time when incidents of fire have increased in the valley, the country is hit by a fuel crisis," Budhathoki said, adding, "We are facing difficulty in managing fuel (for fire engines)."
Similarly, housewives complain that prices of daily commodity items have shot up and vegetables and fruits have become scarce due to unavailability of vehicles to supply them in the market. The shortage of kerosene and cooking gas in the market due to disruption of vehicular movement in the Terai region was already a big headache, now they are dealing with increased shedding hours.
“I have to usually wake up early in the morning to pump out water from the tap through the electric water pump, but with increase in load shedding hours we have not been getting drinking water from the past few days as whenever I have to pump out water the electricity goes out,” a housewife complained.
Fuel crisis has also got in the middle of Suman Malla’s love life as he says he hasn’t been able to meet his girlfriend because he doesn’t have fuel in his bike and he doesn’t want to make his girlfriend walking all the way to her home when there aren’t enough public vehicles either.
And with the state of things, even the dead would soon start to feel the effects of this turmoil the valley resident’s are reeling under as the crematory in Pashupati Nath Temple is running out of enough woods to burn dead bodies as the timber corporation which supplies it with wood has not been getting its regular supply due to disruption in vehicular movement in the Terai region.
Is this the capital City, or as one commentator rightly mentioned the City of Scarcity? nepalnews.com Feb 20 08
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