Abou Adel is an employee in a government department. He lives in the neighborhood in the center of Damascus. For four days, he has been trying to secure a gas cylinder for his home, but all in vain.
"I leave my house early in the morning to the gas distribution center, and I wait with a large crowd of people from the neighborhood. Each person holds his empty cylinder like me, but the gas never arrives," he explained.
Abou Adel said the cost of getting a gas cylinder takes up a third of his salary, pointing out that if it is available, the price reaches up to SYP 5,000.
Life in Damascus has become hell for Abou Adel and his family, especially after this rise in prices and the shortage of living materials.
Abou Saif, another resident said the cause of the crisis is the government's lack of concern in securing the basic living needs of the people of Damascus. Gas reaches some areas – the pro-regime areas – while it is not available for long periods and sold at high prices in other regions.
The total absence of any state control over sellers has turned them into "gangs", he said, "making the lives of people more difficult, especially if we add the lack of electricity and fuel loss".
The gas crisis hit Damascus again after other similar crises, where the government was unable to resolve the crisis, leading to a significant rise in gas prices and turning its trade to a black market with no signs of a solution.
Ibrahim is an engineer from Damascus. He told All4Syria that the main concern for the citizens in Damascus today is the search for gas cylinders, "especially as we live in a harsh climate with constant power cuts and a scarcity of diesel and other fuels," he said.
Abou Saif, from Sarouja, said that the official, but rarely applied, price of a gas cylinder ranges between SYP 1,100 and SYP 1,150. But during the recent period, he said, it is no longer available, except for some people selected by the gas distributors in the neighborhood, who keep about one third of the gas cylinders, so the price rises to at least SYP 1,500, and sometimes as high as SYP 2,200.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
