Gawai celebration leaves Kapit short of fuel

KAPIT: The recent surge in population here due to the Gawai Dayak celebration left the town with an acute shortage of fuel products from diesel to petrol and benzene.

Pensioner Justin Jaman complained there is always a shortage of fuel, causing great inconvenience to locals.

“The shortage of fuel supply here is not a new issue. The problem has existed since a few years ago. There are so many thousands of vehicles on the road. Yet, the whole of Kapit has only two stations. Certainly this is not enough. We experience fuel shortages from time to time,” he said when met at a petrol station yesterday.

“Now we have a new government, yet there is no improvement. We hope the PH (federal) government would be more sensitive to the needs and requirements of the people. While the JPJ (Road Transport Department) collects road tax and we pay for insurance, the government has an obligation to look into our woes of fuel shortages.”

A source from the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism office here said one of the reasons for the shortage was a delay in the shipment of fuel from Tanjung Manis.

It is understood that during normal days, each shipment is sufficient for a week’s fuel supply for Ngemah, Song, and Kapit.

The monthly demand for one of the two petrol stations here is on average 430,000 litres for petrol and 950,000 litres for diesel.

Kapit has some 8,000 registered vehicles.

There are also four floating petrol kiosks at the Kapit Waterfront to service boats.