Pulling the plug on gas

Piped gas for cooking purpose is an important necessity for households in Pakistan. In South Asia, we prefer meal cooked on flame rather than on electric stoves. Therefore, even in areas where gas is not available, use of firewood, cow dung and even coal is materialised because of the specific tastes in Pakistan.

The gas load shedding in recent years has become a major political and social concern. More than industry, it is the gas supply to households that has been flagged as an issue. This is despite the fact that only 22 per cent of households get access to piped gas, the rest use cylinders or other means to light the flame. There are no two opinions about the difficulties encountered by this group of the population.

Pakistan has 0.4 per cent of global gas reserves and accounts for 1.1 per cent of the global consumption, according to the Worldometer’s country reserves data. The gas is distributed through pipelines to households which claim 50 per cent of available supplies, followed by the fertiliser sector, independent power plants and industrial and CNG sectors. Since the 1950s, natural gas has been the fuel of choice for households across large and medium-sized cities of Pakistan connected to the gas supply grid.

As things stand today, the available indigenous gas is no longer sufficient to meet rising domestic needs, pushing the country to rely on gas imports. It has also pushed the regulators to stop new gas connections for households. Scheduled and unannounced gas shortages during winters have been a recurring phenomenon in Pakistan for around two decades now.

While gas shortage is increasingly becoming a part of the lives of Pakistanis, not much is known of the experiences, struggles and search for alternatives of the 10.8 million population that is reliant on piped gas for their cooking and heating needs. A local think tank, The Knowledge Forum, that works on producing knowledge-based resources on human rights and development, recently conducted a countrywide survey of piped gas consumers from low-income communities to understand how households are dealing with natural gas shortage. This article provides a glimpse into the lives of consumers, especially women, and their struggles, which are especially compounded due to limited measures and support by the government and stakeholders to assist in dealing with the crisis.

The research - predominantly survey-based - targeted 90 households from across Pakistan that are consumers of piped gas. Focus was kept on gas consumers in low-income neighbourhoods with a combined monthly income of Rs 70,000 or below. The survey was conducted in nine districts including Quetta and Jaffarabad in Balochistan; Peshawar and Haripur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan in Punjab; and Karachi and Sukkur in Sindh. The choice of the cities for the survey was aimed at capturing the experience of low-income families not just in the big cities in the more populous provinces but also in medium-sized cities across the country. The selected cities included those with really cold winter, such as Quetta, Haripur and Peshawar on one end of the spectrum and mild winters, as are generally the norm in cities like Karachi.

The 90 respondents in the nine districts included 47 men, 42 women and one transgender person. These included earning members of their households - comprising two-thirds of the respondents - as well as home makers and carers.

As expected, an overwhelming majority of respondents cited natural gas as their preferred fuel for cooking, while half of them (44 respondents) favoured natural gas as a source for heating. Many believed it to be a clean, affordable, safe and reliable source of fuel. Despite recent tariff hikes, it is still considered the least expensive fuel for households, especially for those whose low usage qualified them for a subsidised tariff.

The socio-economic impact of gas shortage (Findings of the survey)

Finances: The winter gas shortages had come to have an outsized effect on all aspects of daily lives. Among the respondents, 41 per cent cited the winter gas shortages as a direct or indirect cause of a loss of income, mainly because gas scarcity delayed their breakfast and departure for their jobs on a number of occasions. Others also mentioned reprimand, deduction of wages and lost bonuses on account of frequent late arrival at work connected in some way to the absence of gas in the morning.

Another reflection of the financial cost is having to buy cooked food from outside. In addition, gas consumers not only pay monthly gas bills even when there is limited gas supply, they also bear the cost of alternative fuel - LPG cylinders - which at a time of gas shortage skyrockets due to high demand.

Referring to the rising cost of living and high inflation, many respondents indicated that their financial situation did not allow them to spend money on fuels to replace natural gas. Frequent doctor visits and medicine costs linked to cold-related ailments contributed as an additional drain on their finances due to gas shortages. LPG, the most commonly available fuel that can be used in conventional gas stoves, was said to be three times more expensive than natural gas during winter. The combined expense on fuel, including the gas bill and the cost of alternatives, took a big chunk, between 10 per cent to a quarter on average, out of the respondents’ monthly household income.

To ease the financial burden, several respondents reported switching to cheaper foods, even if those did not provide as much nutrition, or resorting to consuming smaller food portions or reducing the number of meals from three to two. Many reports have indicated women playing a sacrificial role when it comes to family’s food consumption. They limit their food intake to help feed the family.

Children’s routine: The gas load shedding affects all age groups. This is evident in the impact of shortage on children which severely affected their routine, hygiene, and health. The research team learned of children missing their school vans due to low gas pressure hampering timely breakfast preparation. It was not uncommon for students to go to school hungry and they could also not take along any home-cooked food for lunch.

It would be apt to highlight how women bear this impact too. As carers directly responsible for their children’s health and hygiene, mothers try to care for children in the absence of warm and hygienic food and hot water.

Efficiency of teachers: According to the reports, female teachers make up over 50 per cent of teachers in the education sector, particularly in primary, middle and higher education levels. Their struggles with managing home around gas load-shedding multiplies manifold. It was shared in the research that teachers are required to arrive before school starts and their attendance is marked through biometric system. Late arrival or absence results in salary deduction. While teachers - most are females - make an effort to be punctual, they mostly arrive without having breakfast. They can teach a period or two on an empty stomach, but after that they find it difficult to concentrate despite their best efforts. The school cafeteria also has no gas so there is no possibility of belated breakfast or morning tea. School administration interviewed for the research shared that they noted that the gas shortage has affected the efficiency and concentration of teachers.

Social life: Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, the impact of gas shortage on social life was also felt gravely. Women were again reported to be at the centre of this concern. As many as 56 per cent of the respondents said they faced a variety of social impacts on account of the winter gas shortages. This included an inability to properly host guests, and failure to arrange food and heating for guests staying with respondents. If family was able to arrange some heating, they would have to compromise privacy as all family members and guests had to sit in the same room to access heating. At times, missing the often-small window for cooking food caused tensions among family members. A female respondent from Peshawar said that her husband ‘disrespected’ her and they quarrelled often due to the delay in food preparation because of the gas shortages.

Health matters: A number of health-related issues that the respondents highlighted appeared to be a direct consequence of their inability to meet heating and/or cooking needs during the winter gas scarcity. A whopping 68 per cent of respondents said the gas shortages had a direct impact on their own or other family members’ health.

Delving further on health crisis, in winters, even freshly cooked food turns cold at a faster date. Women being the primary caregiver at home would have to wake up at odd hours to prepare food and ensure that supplies are available so that they can cook fast within the short window of gas availability. The physical stress of staying on alert and spring into action as soon as gas would be available undoubtedly impacted their mental wellbeing. Both the respondents and the medical practitioners interviewed for this research spoke of people having to change their sleep schedule and duration to cope with gas outages. Women complained of feeling stressed, rushed and having to constantly change their routine.

In worst cases, when women were unable to prepare meals during the time when gas is available (which at times is wee hours of morning), the family would be forced to buy food from outside vendors or consume leftover food cooked earlier. Consuming cold or outside meals have resulted in cases of stomach issues. Similarly, lack of indoor heating has led to frequent cold-related ailments, especially among the children, and complication of existing health conditions among the elderly. Respondents shared that lack of warm water for bathing, and ablution affected their health, with children and the elderly cited as the most vulnerable. Some respondents highlighted that low-income families could only afford to heat their homes and water using natural gas. An inability to use gas heaters during winters, due to low pressure, exposed the children to the risk of falling ill. Many respondents also worried that if gas supply was suspended while a gas heater was being used and later resumed it could lead to gas leakage. Recounting numerous incidents of gas inhalation taking human lives in their respective districts, they said they prefer the risk of falling ill from cold rather than endangering their lives due to gas leakage from a running heater.

Amplifying health burden was the use of firewood which is often used as an alternative to stoves in periods of extreme gas load-shedding. As women are responsible for kitchen work in our society, the smoke emission from the use of firewood during the process directly hit their lungs while also disturbing the breathing of other family members. In winters, the cold air is stagnant, which prevents the smoke from dispersing.

What alternatives do we have?

When asked for solutions, 94 per cent of the respondents were of the view that the government should consider cultivating alternatives to curb winter gas shortages. However, their grasp of the range of alternatives was rather limited and many advised provisions of free or subsidised LPG cylinders to the poor as the solution. Respondents also suggested that even if the gas supply has to be suspended to factories for a few hours each morning, households should have gas at that time as a child or adult has to leave for school or work from every home at that time. If that is not possible, then the school opening time should be delayed so simultaneous pressure on parents can be relieved. If the authorities facilitate them in some way, the people would feel that their state is concerned about them.

These experiences shared in the survey are telling in light of the fact that Pakistan is preparing to unplug gas supply to households to respond to depleting reserves and expensive imports. Popular alternatives to piped gas for households is electric stoves. In terms of policy and future planning, there seems to be no thinking in the government for alternatives if gas supply is suspended. If the government requires households to switch to electricity for cooking, there will have to be concrete measures to rationalise the exorbitant price of electricity. If households are to obtain electricity from rooftop solar, there will have to be extensive urban redesigning as space limitations in dense urban areas prevent the domestic sector to install solar panels. Other options practiced in rural areas can only be replicated in urban areas if there is space. In the light of financial, economic and social burden experienced by households in the survey done by The Knowledge Forum, it would be criminal on the part of the government to hurriedly plug off gas supplies without arranging affordable and clean alternatives for cooking and heating needs for millions of households.

The Knowledge Forum’s Study ‘Gasping for Survival’, authored by Najamuddin is available on

https://www.theknowledgeforum.org/reports/

Zeenia Shaukat is Director of The Knowledge Forum.

She can be reached at zeeniashaukat@theknowledgeforum.org