12 Oct 2014

Shakawe was trecently hit by a three day fuel shortage leaving many vehicles motionless on the sidelines of roads and disrupting business operations. The fuel shortages in the village are frequent and pose a challenge to businesses including those in neighbouring settlements.

The general manager of Shell filling station in Shakawe, Mr John Dingalo told BOPA in an interview that their filling station has a capacity of 38 000 litres of petrol and 40 000 litres of diesel which can only last for less than three days.

Mr Dingalo said with these small tanks their supply cannot meet the market demand. He noted that they do not only supply Shakawe but the villages nearby like Nxamasere, Samochima, Kajaja and all the villages on the other side of the Okavango river who buy in bulk as there are no filling stations in their settlements.

He said population growth of people and vehicles in their region over the past years has increased the fuel demand. 

He said there are two filling stations in Shakawe but the other one is not in operation making the situation more serious.

Dingalo said it takes time to schedule the freights and there is always a delay on arrivals of fuel freights from Namibia and Francistown. “The truck drivers do not drive at night, they only drive nine hours a day,” he explained.

Furthermore, he highlighted that it takes two full days for the truck to arrive in Shakawe because of the long distances and the bad roads.

He promised customers that in the near future they want to convert diesel tanks to petrol as the demand of petrol is higher than that of diesel.

For her part ,Ms Keamogetse Dipalo who runs a newly established take away business funded by Youth Development Fund (YDF) said the fuel shortage has resulted in huge loss to her business.

She said one day her driver did not show up to fetch her mobile kitchen to the market even though she had already cooked some food which she just had to waste.

Mr Tshenyegelo Bonang, a teacher in Shakawe Primary School said the public service is affected as government offices are all over the village therefore officers have to travel to and from work.

He said they are now forced to walk long distances with their children to school as their vehicles run empty on fuel resulting in late arrivals at work. 

He said sometimes it takes four days for fuel to arrive. Mr Bonang said sometimes they are forced to contribute some money in order to hire a van to go buy them some fuel in Gumare which is also very far. ENDS