Issa Yahya wrote in “Nidaa Al-Watan”:
Fuel prices fluctuate day by day according to the Ministry of Energy price, and the people of Bekaa monitor the pace of price rises and falls with their eyes on the diesel that lights their pockets with the fire of high prices, and they buy the quantities according to the climatic temperature.
Life’s troubles and hardships impose a reality on the Lebanese that has become almost inevitable, they live according to what circumstances require and the material liquidity in their hands and according to their salaries which fly by at lightning speed. their priorities, including food, clothing and heating in the best of winter.
And at the gates of the frost that envelops the Bekaa and some other areas, where temperatures drop to unbearable levels for children’s bodies, and while many prepare during the summer what is necessary for heating, including wood and diesel, there are many families outside the framework to ensure the requirements of the “heaters”, live every day His day, buy diesel fuel in liters and spend it with a dropper, or collect the branches of trees that are pruned at this time, and all that that falls on their hands to ensure the warmth that breaks the cold.
Years before the crisis that hit them, the inhabitants of the Bekaa used to prepare for winter according to their needs, prepare winter supplies and fill the fuel tank according to their own expenses or buy firewood, and with the high price which affects various industries and commodities, their ability to buy diesel oil has decreased with the hailstorm coming during last week and the amount of quantity they buy depends on the weather conditions and rain temperatures, so some of them turn on the heat when it rains or it is very cold, and some of them use it only at night, and they go to the stations that sell at the official price, or to the stations of the “Hezbollah” secretariat that sell Iranian diesel at a price lower than the official one of fifty thousand pounds.
Many are counting on Hezbollah to bring in Iranian diesel, as it did last year, and sell it at prices some can afford, despite questions about its quality, or in terms of theft and haphazard distribution, and with the price of a plate reaching 850,000, noting that it is not enough for a house for two days, requests have increased. By importing Iranian diesel, and some residents of the region have appealed to the “party” to take this step to ease the burden on citizens, after rumors circulated about the intention of “Hezbollah” to bring it in, while the distribution mechanism is still unclear, both in terms of price and available quantities.
According to information circulated, the mechanism that will be adopted oscillates between selling a barrel for fifty dollars, and between giving people a sum of money to buy diesel, or adopting a “sajjad” card distributed by the “party ” which entitles its bearer to obtain diesel, noting that the entry of diesel tanks from Syrian territory to the Lebanese interior in favor of “Hezbollah”, has not stopped during the summer period so far, but rather the its number has been increasing for some time.
The rationing of diesel and the inability to buy it has not only affected citizens, some of whom have resorted to wearing warm clothing and blankets, but some public schools in Baalbek have also been affected and parents have been sent text messages via “ WhatsApp” that diesel was not available to heat their children and that they should close until it could be made safe Other schools have recommended thicker clothes for the parents of their children in case they decide to send them on their own.
