Butane gas 'shortage' piles pressure on Mubarak's Egypt

For many, the scarcity of subsidised cooking and heating gas raises memories of acute shortages of bread in 2008.

"Every year this butane crisis gets a little worse, so why doesn't the government take a stand and provide for its people," said Mahmoud al-Askalani, for consumer group Citizens Against the High Cost of Living.

In Cairo's low-income neighbourhood of Bashteel last week,

hundreds of men and women queued into the night waiting for fuel tanks and trucks carrying cylinders to arrive.

"All the women have walked here to sit for hours hoping that a truck will show up," said one woman, Um Ahmad, sitting on her empty cannister as she waited in line at Bashteel.

When the trucks did arrive, people swarmed over them, elbowing their way to grab a cylinder before they all disappeared.

In the past two weeks, local papers reported clashes among furious customers armed with switchblades. Police said two people were killed last week, crushed as they clung to a moving truck loaded with gas cylinders.

The troubles add to what has been a frequent public refrain in recent times – that the government, headed for the past 29 years by President Hosni Mubarak, has become out of touch with the population as the influence of powerful business figures has grown. More than 40 per cent of Egypt's population of 80 million lives on less than 1.30 a day.

At the same time, the government is burdened with a decades-old system of subsidies and other benefits meant to provide cheap food and supplies for the poor. The system is riddled with inefficiency, disorganisation and corruption.

"The crisis of the gas cylinders embodies the government's failure to draw up a realistic plan to resolve the problems in Egypt," wrote Mohammad Shordi in the al-Wafd newspaper. "It is a simple matter of supply and demand. The government should simply close the gap between the two."

The cause of the shortage remains unclear.

According to a study performed by Askalani's group, demand for butane only increased by 8 per cent this winter, which he said shouldn't have caused such stark shortages. The study found that government delays in paying for imported butane – produced in Egypt but processed abroad – caused a delay in shipments meaning some in Cairo were left without butane for weeks.

The government has blamed bad weather, which it said forced ports to close this month, delaying shipments.

The government has ordered four more distribution stations to handle the spike in demand

but shortages at the centres, where a cylinder costs about 30p, has forced some people to turn to the black market.

Factory owners buying up subsidised butane meant for home use have been selling it for up to 20 a cylinder.