Got fuel?

This morning I got invited to a new facebook group. It is not a joke.  Last week legislation that reduced the price of fuel by 200 TSH ($0.10) came into effect, causing gas station operators to freeze their pumps and refuse to sell.

I had gotten wind of this through whispers in my exorbitantly priced gym’s change room.  Spotting a friend on a treadmill, I advised her to fill up her tank.  After a particularly painful workout, sitting back with my evening soda water, I realized my oversight – I’d forgotten to go to the gas station!

Of my colleagues, I’m the lucky one.  I live a ten minute drive from the office and have for the most part maintained a quarter tank of gas at all times.  There were rumblings that the government was going to ‘solve the problem’, and I figured that by exercising some prudence I could make it until the weekend.

And I did.  The problem was solved when the owners agreed to reduce the price after depleting their residual stock.  So Saturday morning I filled up my tank and Sunday I headed out for some much needed beach time (it was a long weekend here – literally ‘eight eight day’ and yes, there was a ‘seven seven’ holiday last month!).  Tuesday morning my assistant said that on Monday her neighbourhood was packed with people crowding the gas stations – on a holiday! 

A quick read of the daily paper explained the situation - sort of.  Yet again, owners were refusing to sell petrol.  In Dar, this is a heightened crisis because of the abysmal traffic.  People can literally spend hours commuting at a standstill, burning fuel.  Public transportation (which most people rely on) has begun to grind to a halt because buses have nowhere to fill up.  I’ve written countless times about the pathetic state of power generation here – a problem that is compounded when there is no diesel to fuel back-up generators.  Yesterday there was apparently a command that the stations had 24 hours to open or face the revocation of their business licenses.  If the impasse continues, quite literally the city will stop working (comments on its functionality aside).

And so, the facebook page.  I was even able to contribute by sharing a lead when our driver got word of an open station in the neighbourhood! Hopefully this isn’t yet another false start to resolving the problem- only time will tell!