Petrol crisis

Currently in Nepal there is a bit of a crisis in the (Terai) south of the country, with certain ethnic groups wanting more political autonomy and greater representation in parliament. Quite a few people have been killed by the police which is only fanning the fire of discontent… there are blockades and curfews in many parts of the Terai and as this affects the main import routes from India there is now a huge nationwide gas and petrol shortage (with other shortages to follow I suppose as we seem to get many things from India or the countryside – both of which require fuel to get into Kathmandu). Most people (including me) cook using gas bottles, and as Kathmandu is smogville central I can assure you petrol is in high demand. Some petrol is getting in but they are rationing it to 5litres per person. One of our drivers at work queued for 6 hours at the weekend to get fuel for a car… the queues are crazy, this afternoon I took some pictures fairly close to my house (see below), they just show the queue for motor bikes, the one for cars snaked for a couple of miles down the road…

The only good thing about all this is less cars on the road, but so far there is no noticeable improvement in air quality, and my now almost permanent cold persists… grrrr