Gas still in short supply

As the cold continues to bite, people have expressed fears they will not be supplied with gas due to the shortage of cylinders.

The cold weather is forecast to last for a few more days and at these times gas is indispensable for those who use it to heat their homes.

A San Gwann resident called The Times yesterday to say that no gas distributors had been to the area for at least three weeks. Many other areas were in a similar predicament, as attested to by several other callers.

The San Gwann man also lamented the queues of frustrated people who were not being served at the Birzebbuga gas depot and complained that elderly people could hardly be expected to make the trip down there to collect their gas cylinders.

One of the reasons behind the current shortage is the fact that Enemalta did not accept a consignment of 24,000 cylinders it had ordered, after tests showed they were not up to EU standards.

When contacted, a spokesman for Enemalta said 13,500 new gas cylinders had been delivered and these would help the corporation in its efforts to meet consumer demand.

"The tight stock of cylinders, due to the withdrawal of a number of unsatisfactory cylinders late last year, was one of the causes of the delays and the shortages our customers have had to put up with over the last few days," he said.

The spokesman said the arrival of a new supply of gas today will also help Enemalta in its efforts to catch up with demand.

"More will need to be done in the way we run this service internally. We are looking into our stock management and contingency procedures and will also be working on a radical reform in the work practices at the bottling plant, which are simply inadequate to meet the current rates of demand," he said.

The spokesman said all these problems were brought to the fore at a time when demand had increased by about 20 per cent over the previous year alone. He said Enemalta was not prepared for this radical increase and would not let itself be caught out in this way again.

The Consumers' Association has asked for the intervention of the Malta Resources Authority over the gas shortage. It said it had written to the authority insisting it should start safeguarding consumers' interests.

"The authority should ensure that this gas shortage comes to an end," it said. It was the authority's duty to ensure that Enemalta had an adequate provision of gas and that, as the sole provider, it had enough stored gas to cater for changes in demand.

In a notice posted on the Enemalta website yesterday the company announced it would not be carrying out sales of gas cylinders today from the Luxol Ground in St Andrew's, the Price Club in Burmarrad, the Addolorata Cemetery in Paola, the Gas Division in Birzebbuga and the Xewkija and San Lawrenz distribution points in Gozo.

Sales from these areas will continue tomorrow, Sunday, between 8 a.m. and noon.