The current gas shortage problem is making the everyday lives of people in Dhaka a tough struggle. Residents of Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Shyamoli, Rampura, Kolabagan, and Jatrabari, as well as many in nearby areas, have complained that nobody in the neighbourhood knows when to cook; they do not even have any idea when the gas pressure will be available for their stoves.
Families have already shifted their lifestyle accordingly. Some who can afford it were forced to use restaurant food, electric cookers, LPG cylinders, firewood, or clay stoves for cooking, thereby making household expenditure soar and disrupting the normal life of the families.
Kitchens gone silent
The crisis means families are not always able to make their kitchens function when they want to.
During the day, gas flow most of the time comes late or early. Still, the pressure is absolutely not strong enough to prepare a full meal, which means families often have to postpone or skip breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Families report that gas is delayed in the evening or the morning. Still, it is not always strong enough to cook a good meal, so they put off or skip lunch and dinner, or get it from outside the home.
This disproportionately affects people's lifestyles and stretches their pockets, as they may not have an alternative income source for this unexpected disruption.
Cost of survival
Financial costs are the greatest burden. Families that used to cook at home are foregoing meals and purchasing LPG refills, electric stoves/gadgets, and paying more for electricity for things like cooking, bringing food from restaurants, and paying monthly gas bills as well. Many reports from January also pointed out that a 12 kg liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder under a fixed price of Tk 1,306 by Bangladesh Vacuum Bottled LPG Corporation (BERC) was being sold for as high as Tk 2,500 in Dhaka, making the backup option unattainable for many lower- and middle-income households.
Also, the price of an electric stove rose from BDT 1600 to 6000 on average.
Alok (26), a bachelor living in a rented apartment in Kolabagan, says, "It has been a huge stretch on my monthly budget as there is no gas supply in this area. It takes a minimum of 200 to 250 taka per day if I have to eat outside, and that's about BDT 6000. And it's a huge pressure for me. Therefore, I'm trying to skip meals to stay in my budget."
Carrying the burden
Lifestyle implications are particularly dire for women, as in many city households, they do the bulk of the household cooking.
When the gas pressure is reduced, they have to get up earlier, wait longer, or sit outside on a firewood stove cooking, breathing smoke and devoting more time to cooking.
Children are also affected, as families again find it harder to cook fresh food in time, and eating habits become irregular, particularly for young children and infants.
Health and safety issues
This is not only a hindrance but also a health and safety concern. Narrow alleyways and open spaces become places of smoke exposure, burning, and fires when low-income families in these areas use clay stoves or wood fires; indoor use of electric stoves puts a strain on already stretched family budgets and electricity consumption. This is a reminder of the fragility of city life in the absence of a basic component such as gas.
What to use instead of gas?
Once all the gas has gone, of course, it's another easy question: "What will be the menu for this day?" The solution for many families in Dhaka now is to find a suitable option without increasing their financial burden.
The flexibility provided by LPG cylinders comes with a price, but it is prohibitive for households.
Induction cookers are an alternative, but many require special pots and pans to fit - which is another cost at a high time of year. However, an infrared (IR) electric cooker can be a more practical alternative. It can be used in conjunction with a myriad of common utensils.
It can simultaneously shorten the need to buy and acquire a full range of cookware. The compromise is simple: cooking expenses are reduced in the moment, at the expense of higher electricity bills.
Time to change your menu?
One of the simplest ways to avoid a cooking disaster is to never prepare a meal the way you usually do. In times of disruptions in gas supplies, families can consider using foods that have minimal to no cooking requirements, such as 'chira with processed milk or curd' and banana, bread, mixed puffed rice, suji and regular or peanut butter, fruits, salads, sweet or sour yoghurt, and other simple foods during a temporary period. Foods that cook rapidly, like fried eggs, noodles, oats, corn flakes, salad, or basic fruit and vegetable (cucumber, tomato, etc.) preparations, can also decrease the time spent near a weak stove.
That doesn't mean you have to go on a diet. Indeed, the crisis can be a chance to embrace healthier, easier, and simpler food patterns, lessening the need for elaborate and time-consuming meals.
Change in lifestyle, not a permanent burden
On hard days, it might sometimes be cheaper to repeatedly buy from cloud kitchens that are priced affordably than waiting long hours for LPG or cooking on electric stoves. It ends up being strategy, not impulse; it's about computation, not compulsion.
Unfortunately, a gas crisis may be something a single family cannot control; alternatively, there are ways they can control how they cook, what they eat, and how they spend their time and effort during the crisis. Living through a crisis sometimes relies on how you live during times of crisis.
Samiha Mamun is a Graduate student of the Army Institute of Business Administration (Army IBA), affiliated with the Bangladesh University of Professionals in Savar, Dhaka.
