IN A PITIFUL scene at Phetchabun province desperate farmers slept overnight in their vehicles as they queued up for fuel at petrol pumps with their watermelons having ripened and now ready for sale, Naewna newspaper said today (March 24).
Reporters saw a long queue in front of a PT filling station near Mueang Phetchabun School on the Saraburi-Lomsak road last night with dozens of pickup trucks waiting to fill up today. Many of them had brought their bedding and food along for the overnight wait in their vehicles.
Ms. Nittaya (surname withheld), a farmer from Ban Tok subdistrict, tearfully explained that she grows watermelons on a 50-rai plot, which are currently ripening and require 30-40 litres of water everyday.
The oil crisis forced her to park and queue up at 4 p.m. to ensure she would be among the first to get fuel. A few days earlier she had arrived at 2 a.m. and almost didn’t get any. This time, she brought a 200-litre tank to stock up. However, filling stations limit quotas to no more than 3,000 baht per person and when all is used up, farmers have to return and wait overnight again, wasting both time and causing significant mental stress.
This crisis isn’t just limited to agriculture with Nittaya mentioning that when she contacted traders at Talad Thai (a local market) to sell her watermelons, no one dared to buy it. Traders are concerned about soaring fuel prices and fear that if they drive to pick up the produce and run out of fuel on the way back, they would have to wait in line at various filling stations which could lead to the watermelons spoiling or being stranded.
In a message to Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and relevant agencies Nittaya said currently, almost all small petrol pumps in her area have closed down because they lack fuel. The main problem is that each filling station’s fuel quota has been reduced by half and the situation remains uncertain.
The easiest solution is for the Prime Minister to order fuel depots to allocate full quotas to filling stations as before, so that villagers don’t have to endure the hardship of sleeping overnight by the roadside waiting to buy fuel.
CAPTION:
A long overnight queue at a petrol pump in Phetchabun, above and Front Page, and Nittaya talking to reporters, inserted. Photos – Naewna
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