Fuel shortages have affected transportation and fishing on Arwad Island, off the Syrian coast, after the Assad regime government stopped supplying fuel to boats more than two months ago.
According to the affiliated website Athr Press, owners had to buy the item on the black market at twice the price.
The site cited the words of the boat owners who have been looking for fuel for two months to continue transporting people between the island and Tartus.
Fishermen also felt that they were “suffocated between two bitter choices”: “either waiting for diesel and suspending fishing, which is the main source of income for thousands of families, or chasing free cans and taking on a financial burden.”
“For more than two months, we haven’t been able to get any fuel for transportation or fishing,” said Khaled Kakhia, chairman of the transportation committee on the island.
Kakhia said the state company Sadcop had promised to send a diesel tanker to the island’s entrance to provide supplies for the boats, but “did not come”, adding that it was not possible to “turn a blind eye”. Diesel transport boats are needed to transport workers from the island to Tartus and back.
Kakhia explained that the transportation movement has not stopped due to the fact that the owners of the boats bought the diesel, which is 7 thousand 500 Syrian pounds per liter, with “great difficulties”.
