A NEWS report published in a national daily on Sunday said residents at city’s different areas are suffering the worst for want of gas in the cooking stoves. Housewives cannot prepare meals from early in the morning to peak evening hours due to lack of gas in supply line. Many housewives now cook meals on wood burning stoves or diesel fired burners in many city areas. The crisis aggravates from bad to worse from Sunday to Thursday when consumption increases because of the rise in bulk consumption by industries and business. But theft and illegal use of gas are also at work at many places facilitated by gas employees depriving the genuine users.
The problem has become acute as we know, with the arrival of winter when gas supply in the distribution lines has slowed down in absence of enough pressure. Titas Gas and Petrobangla officials have meanwhile, blamed chilly weather for deposition of gas in the distribution lines resulting in disruption of supply chain. Besides, growing supply of gas to fertiliser plants and power plants are also causing gas supply shortage to households. We know that these are some common reasons for supply shortfall. There is no denying of the fact that gas is now used in wider areas as the cheaper source of energy to run factories and business; in addition to running transport vehicles using CNG. The widening dependence is thus only shrinking the supply in absence of enough new discoveries in the ground.
But the officials claim that chilly weather causes a drop in the pressure is rather intriguing. In fact, they cover their mischief by raising diversionary causes. News report never said gas supply from Siberia under sub-zero temperature has ever become stalled for winter cold. What we have been observing is that unless there is a big incident or acute short supply, the authorities do not act to come to remove users’ ordeal. It is true that illegal connections take away huge volume of gas only to aggravate the crisis at many places. Corrupt employees are minting their fortune at the expense of regular users and they must be sternly dealt with. So the authorities must take regular drive to cut illegal supply to free the gas for use by regular users and save revenue from being pilferage.
Experts moreover believe that domestic gas production must be achieved, especially from shore fields to meet growing demands. Otherwise a more difficult situation may befall upon the nation. We also believe that the authorities should take concerted efforts to stop misuse of gas and import gas and LNG from outside sources to meet the growing demand for industry, business and households. As the country is growing fast, the demand for energy is also growing. Preparations must be afoot to take this challenge of the time.
