Domestic cooking gas supply has become erratic in parts of capital Dhaka.
For a month and a half, the flow of gas had been weak at the house of Rifat Ara Ferdous in Dhaka’s New Eskaton; on Sunday morning she discovered it had stopped altogether while trying to light the burner.
“One used to manage to cook despite the poor supply, but even that has stopped now,” she told bdnews24.com on Sunday afternoon. She had to order lunch from outside.
The supply resumed at about 4pm, but pressure was low.
Several other New Eskaton residents had similar complaints about dwindling gas supply over the past month.
Ferdousi Sultana, living two kilometres away at Begunbarhi in Tejgaon South, spoke of her own difficulties.
“For the past two months, there has been a gas crisis from 9am to 3pm. The piped supply is so poor that one can hardly cook. We are forced to buy our meals,” she told bdnews24.com.
Mohinur Begum, a resident of the Shapla housing complex in Mirpur’s Agargaon, said, during the past month and a half, the gas supply used to last 2-3 hours a day. But there had been no supply at all for the last two days.
Sadia Jahan, who lives in Shyamali, an area next to Agargaon, said she had packed her gas burners and switched to electric cookers. “The gas supply had become irregular from December. But in the past one week things have worsened.”
Complaints of a gas crisis have been heard from places such as Lalbag in the old city, Uttara in the north, Badda in the east, and Kaderabad Housing in Mohammadpur.
Several people living in these areas said they were spending quite a bit of extra money buying food from outside, as they were unable to cook at home.
Bachchu Mia, attached to the complaint cell of the Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company, admitted having received ‘hundreds’ of complaints of tapering gas supply.
“The pressure is low. Hence, the supply is insufficient,” he said. But the situation is expected to improve soon.
A Titas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “Titas is getting only 1700m cft against the current daily demand of about 2000m cft, leaving a shortfall of 300m cft.”
But Titas’s Director (operations) Ali Ashraf blamed a spike in gas demand during winter for the crisis.
“The domestic demand during winter is higher than in other times of the year. Hence, there is a problem at this time,” he toldbdnews24.com.
However, he also admitted to certain minor technical glitches, which, he hoped, would be mended through the night.