Martha Taumata Faavae
The holiday season shortage of cooking gas in Savai’i ended during the week with the scheduled monthly shipment by the Samoa Shipping Corporation for the big island.
One of the regular suppliers from Apia, BOC Gas, explained the shortage on only one special trip a month scheduled by the Shipping Corporation for cooking gas.
A supplier spokesman said there are other reasons that include peak sales at this time of the year, always for the months December and January.
“This is the cyclone season and families on the island tend to keep extra tanks on standby especially during these bad weather months,” the gas supplying company spokesman said.
There were speculations also that most of the families re-scheduled meetings and other gatherings during the measles epidemic national state of emergency.
The state of emergency was lifted at the end of the year and it became a busy time for delayed gatherings it raised the demand for the use of cooking gas.
Toa Gas was the only Apia supplier that was able to ship to the island with its truck tanker that an unload into special storage facilities at their outlets.
The tanker truck can go over twice a week depending on the demand.
The January trip during the week rushed supplies all over the island to finally end the shortage.