COLOMBO: A worsening shortage of fuel has brought Sri Lankans of all walks of life to mile-long ques across the island, with little hope for a solution over the coming days. “We have never experienced anything like this in our lifetime. It is a disaster”, noted a senior citizen, forced to queue up for hours for a few liters of fuel.
The situation has worsened with farmers, already struck by the fertilizer crisis, left with no fuel for machinery used to harvest crops. Farmers from ‘breadbasket’ areas in Sri Lanka were seen spending long nights on the street near fuel stations, for want of fuel to run crop processing machinery during a very short ‘dry’ window before rains are forecast. Farmers say that if harvested crops are not processed before wet weather hits, it could result in an unmitigated disaster.
Public transport has also come to a near standstill, and many Sri Lankans are finding it next to impossible to get to their places of work or carry out their day-to-day activities. The fuel shortage has also resulted in vegetables at the key wholesale markets dropping to a low, as they cannot be transported out of the markets to towns and villages.
Speaking on the crisis, Minister of Petroleum Udaya Gammanpilla said that if the Government will provide foreign exchange continuously, a continuous supply of fuel can be guaranteed. He claimed that the key crisis is neither fuel nor power, but the foreign exchange crisis.
