Daraa – Mahjoub al-Hashish
Mounib al-Aoudat, who lives in the town of Aqraba in northern Daraa, buys gas by the kilogram after being financially unable to purchase a cylinder as he used to do before.
If he considers buying a cylinder, its price consumes half of his salary as a school director.
The price of a kilogram of gas reaches 23,000 Syrian pounds ($2.3), while the price of a cylinder in the local market amounts to 220,000 pounds, according to what Enab Baladi‘s correspondent reported from Daraa.
With the takeover of the temporary government of Damascus managing the country, they continued to deliver gas to the appointed points in limited quantities, at a price of $11.8 per cylinder.
Shortage of empty cylinders and currency exchange rate differences
Ahmad al-Antabli, a gas distributor in the town of al-Jiza in eastern Daraa, told Enab Baladi that limited quantities of subsidized gas are reaching the appointed distributors.
He added that out of 12 distributors in the town of al-Jiza, gas has only reached four distributors, since the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, 2024.
The head of the gas department in Daraa, engineer Mohammed al-Sati, attributed the gaps in delivery times to the shortage of empty cylinders, which leads the gas filling unit to stop for several hours until the distributors bring the empty cylinders.
Al-Sati told Enab Baladi that the fuel directorate is still continuing to distribute gas to the residents of Daraa through the “smart card,” which is sold to the distributors at the price of $11.8 per cylinder.
He added that the price differences at which distributors sell the gas are due to their paying bills based on the official dollar exchange rate of 13,250 Syrian pounds.
Household gas is available in Daraa at stalls for a price close to 220,000 pounds. This gas originates from Idlib province, and traders buy it at the regular price in Idlib at $11.8, and it is available, but they control its price, according to al-Sati.
Temporary alternatives
Mounib al-Aoudat’s family is currently economizing in gas consumption and relying on a wood stove for cooking and heating water.
Al-Aoudat stated that he has reduced gas consumption to one cylinder per month due to its high price, whereas he previously needed more than one cylinder.
Meanwhile, Hala al-Mohammad has resorted to cooking on a burner for most meals, after the family economized on using the heater during the day.
Al-Mohammad collects sticks and plastic from the surroundings of her home to ignite a fire, and she said that there is difficulty in winter to start the fire, especially on rainy days when the sticks are wet and the wind is strong.
The lady added that she resorts to these solutions to minimize gas consumption as securing the price of a gas cylinder has become a financial burden on her family, which works in agriculture.
Some families are resorting to using a diesel stove, which has become more available than gas after the price of a liter of diesel dropped to 10,000 pounds (one dollar), after reaching 20,000 pounds before the regime’s fall.
As for Iman al-Rifai, a resident of the town of Jalin in western Daraa, she waits for the designated time to operate electricity to cook on the laser heater.
Daraa province is still under a power rationing system of five hours of outage for every hour of electricity operation.