Fuel shortage in a town of Ninewa resulted in long queues in front of government petrol stations for hours since a month as the portion of the town has been cut to half due to high demand on fuel.
People prefer to stay in the long queues in front of the only public petrol station of Sinuny to receive one liter of subsidized gas for 450 IQD (USD0.30 cents only) as the cost is double in private petrol stations.
"We join the queues 4 or 5 am in the morning and in some cases it takes like 10 hours to fuel. About 300 cars make 1-km-long queue," said Najif Jundi, a resident of Sinuny sub-district of Shingal, located 120 west of Mosul, on the border of Iraq-Syria
"This sole petrol station is unable to meet the demands of all the residents and we call to solve this problem and save us from this long queue."
The petrol station is open from 8 am to 12, only four hours. The new mechanism is vehicles with odd plate numbers receive fuel in a day and the next day is for even plat numbers.
On July 19th, Zuhaer al-Araji, mayor of Mosul city center, said in a press conference the reason behind the long queues is higher demands by those who trade the fuel of public petrol stations, higher demand by people travelling from the north via Mosul to Baghdad and the south and the raise of price in neighbor cities in reference to Kurdistan region.
He declared a new mechanism of odd & even plate numbers for gas distribution as a temporary solution till the portion of the province of Ninewa is doubled soon.
Ninewa, 202- The main street downtown of Sinuny sub-distirct in Mosul. KirkukNow
The acting mayor of Sinuny Khudeda Chuki said since last month, the share of Sinuny has been reduced from 20,000 liters into 10-11 thousand for 125,000 residents.
Some residents wait for long hours and at the end have no chance to fuel as the allocated portion is distributed.
Saydo Murad, has joined the queue in 7 am till mid day and went back home empty handed. He needs fuel to transport his farm products.
"We can't afford buying fuel from private petrol stations because it's expensive. Besides, waiting for long hours is not a guarantee to get fuel so we ask to sorlve this problem soon."
Mayoralty of Sinuny to put an end to the shortage has contacted Mosul which insisted that share of all towns has been cut into half.
"Most of the residents are impoverished farmers and incapable of buying fuel from private stations yet our demands to solve the problem were useless," Chuki said.
Sinuny is part of Shingal, home to the ethno-religious minority of Ezidis and one of the disputed territories between Baghdad and Erbil.
The disputed territories extend from Khanaqin in the east on the border with Iran to the oil rich city of Kirkuk heading to the west of Mosul in Shingal, home to Ezidi ethno-religious minority, on the border with Syria.
Following the declaration of military defeat of so called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ISIS by the Iraqi government back in 2017, discord over security arrangements, public services, and the lack of a unified administration in the disputed territories, have plagued victims and survivors and led to poor public services, crisis and shortages in many sectors of life.
