Petrol scarcity: Two die on queue waiting to buy fuel

The petrol scarcity has continued to cause nightmare to citizens, including tragedies of death and injuries, overstretching people’s patience. About two people died on long queues waiting to buy fuel, officials said in Sri Lanka on Sunday.

The scarcity in Sri Lanka is getting worse by the day, making motorists wait long hours outside petrol stations to buy fuel, as “the government imposed rolling blackouts”, since “power utilities are unable to pay for enough foreign oil to meet demand.”
The Police disclosed that a 70-year-old man standing in line to buy petrol collapsed and died at a filling station on the outskirts of the capital, Colombo, on Sunday.

Another elderly man was said to have earlier collapsed in Kandy while waiting to buy kerosene oil to use as cooking fuel. The police confirmed the death occurred some days before the incident in Colombo.

Several women standing in the hot sun to buy cooking gas were also said to have fainted at different locations in the country at the weekend.

It was disclosed that Sri Lanka lacks sufficient foreign currency to pay for Oil and liquefied petroleum gas imports and shipments.

The country has debt burden of $51 billion external debt, with servicing liability of $6.9 billion repayments this year.