April 30: It’s been about a month now since people in the six eastern Dzongkhags have been facing an acute shortage of cooking gas.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ regional offices in Samdrup Jongkhar and Monggar held a meeting with suppliers to increase the existing cooking gas quota for the region.

Regional Trade Director Sonam Jigme told BBS that the shortage will be solved to a large extent once the supply is increased from next month. He said they have already put up a letter to the Ministry to increase the quota from existing 13 to 15 truckloads. He said the department is carrying out a detailed survey on the supply and demand scenario.

So far the central and eastern regions get 70 metric tons of cooking gas. Distributors said the increase in the number of consumers could have caused the shortage.

In Samdrup Jongkhar, our reporter Pema Samdrup says the problem could not have come at a worse time. Apart from cooking gas shortage, Samdrup Jongkhar residents have also been facing erratic power supply. He said for over a month Samdrup Jongkhar has been experiencing frequent power blackouts.

The Manager of the Bhutan Power Corporation office in Samdrup Jongkhar said fierce winds and heavy rain are disrupting the power supply bringing down transmission lines and at times knocking down transmission poles. He said the office has deployed technical personnel to repair the damage caused by the recent windstorm.

Residents have also been facing drinking water shortage. There has reportedly been no drinking water for the past two days. Municipal officials said they are carrying out the annual maintenance work and cleaning the water reservoir which has been filled with debris from the recent windstorm and heavy downpour.

They said the maintenance work will have to be completed before the Monsoon begins. They said they have notified the residents in advance. Residents however said the drinking water shortage in Samdrup Jongkhar is a perennial problem.