'Shortage' of metal LPG cylinders worries Doha residents

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Several residents have complained about a lack of delivery of metal LPG cylinders in some areas of Doha and its suburbs.

"If the vehicles carrying the metal cylinders were a common sight on Doha roads until a few weeks ago, of late they are very rare to find," a resident said.

But some people said the neighbourhood stores in their localities had enough stock of the cylinders. Many of them asked how could this be possible if there was any shortage of gas cylinders.

One such resident said he had been waiting for almost two weeks to get his empty cylinder replaced with a new one.

“Now the second cylinder at home is about to go empty and there is still no sight of gas cylinder delivery vehicles.”

Another resident said he had to rush to a neighbourhood store to get a new cylinder.

“Yesterday, while cooking, our gas cylinder got exhausted and I had to rush to a neighbourhood store. Earlier, we always had the spare cylinder and even replacing an empty cylinder was not that difficult."

Similar views were echoed by other people with one of them saying he had to buy food from a nearby restaurant as he had run out of LPG cylinders.

Some residents wondered how the shopkeepers always had enough stock. “We rarely see the cylinder vehicles on the road nowadays. But every time we approach a store that sells cylinders, they have enough stock. How can it happen?” asked a resident.

They also pointed out that it was highly inconvenient for them to buy the cylinders from nearby shops.

“We need to carry the empty cylinders all the way to the shop. Then we have to carry back the full cylinder which is very heavy and need the assistance of another person to lift it to the car as well as to the kitchen at home. If the delivery vehicles provide the cylinder, they carry it to the doorstep.”

Of late, Woqod has been encouraging consumers to shift from metal cylinders to the light weight Shafaf cylinders.

However, a majority of the consumers are still using the metal cylinders.

According to Woqod officials, around 20% of the consumers had moved to Shafaf cylinders
earlier this year and efforts were being made to encourage more people to use the light-weight cylinders.