Fuel crisis has hit Kalomo District in Southern Province for the past one week following the closure of the only filling station in town under Kobil which was run by a local businessman, paralyzing operations of most motorists.
And a local businessman who was running the service station, Stephen Bwebya, when contacted for a comment said his contract with Kobil Limited has expired but said his company may resume operations soon.
The development has made fuel vendors to raise prices with a 20 litres container of diesel selling at K140,000 while the same quantity for petrol is selling between K180,000 and K200,000 .
Most motorists talked to have prodded the District Development Coordinating Committee (DDCC) to find an alternative big and viable company to run a filling station in the district because this was not the first time the town has experienced such fuel shortages.
The motorists, ferrying their maize for sale to the 15 satellite depots created by the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) for this year’s crop marketing season in the district, said the development would advantage unscrupulous buyers to penetrate into rural areas and buy their maize cheaply as they could afford other means of getting fuel to travel to rural areas.
Some government departments and their fleet of vehicles including those for the on going mobile voter registration exercise are getting fuel from Choma District which is 60 km away from Kalomo.
Meanwhile, the on going mobile voter registration exercise has so far managed to captured 3,382 new voters since it started up to June 21 to July 15 this year, District Electoral Officer, Allfred Mungalu has acknowledged.
[ ZANIS ]
With the ceasation of operatons by BP in Zambia and the withdrawal of TOTAL from INDENI, fuel shortages will soon be the norm rather than the exception in Zambia.
WWhat’s up kalomo.
Isnt kalomo a former capital of Zambia. Why have only one gas station.
That is my hometown. Some things just dont seem to change. One filling station for over 40 years
These are some of the things that discourage us from getting back home. To buy a liter of petrol at 10pin. awe sure thats too much. How can you develop like that.
And you call that development? Uko kwine! indebting ourselves with such huge sums to obtain useless mobile hospitals when fuel is becoming an issue pa Zed. From hearses or horses to mobile hospital?