A mix of absurdity and dark comedy is the least that can be said about the current butane gas crisis gripping the country. The price of a single cylinder has skyrocketed to EGP 70—more than ten times its actual cost—while authorities appear strangely incapable of controlling this recurring crisis.
Long queues have stretched outside butane cylinder depots in Cairo and other governorates, with daily clashes erupting among desperate citizens hoping to secure a cylinder. Security forces have been called in to break up numerous fights, many of which have escalated to the use of knives and even firearms. The crisis has now claimed its first ‘butane martyr’.
Several areas in Giza, 6 October and Helwan have witnessed violent altercations. In Imbaba, a man was killed and another injured. In Kerdasa, two people were wounded, and nine others arrested. Meanwhile, elderly citizens have collapsed from exhaustion in the struggle to obtain a cylinder.
As if this was not enough to highlight the economic dysfunction between producer and consumer, the crisis took an even more absurd turn when those with social ills seized the opportunity to make matters worse. Women forced to take part in the ‘butane battle’ were subjected to sexual harassment, while unemployed youth and ex-convicts saw a golden opportunity for quick profit. Armed gangs secured large quantities of cylinders through intimidation, stockpiling them to resell at extortionate prices.
Yet the officials responsible for this sector were no less culpable than those fuelling the chaos on the streets. The head of the Petroleum Authority blamed ordinary citizens for the crisis, arguing that people rush to replace their cylinders even when they could last five more days, driven by fear of shortages.
He seems unaware that this behaviour is entirely rational for any consumer, anywhere in the world, and would be expected even in the wealthiest and most advanced nations. It is a basic economic reaction to crises, hardly surprising or unreasonable. Blaming anxious consumers—who are merely trying to ensure they can feed their families—is both unfair and misguided.
The current butane crisis is a reflection of chronic dysfunction, perpetuated by all parties involved. It stems from poor planning and the government’s recurring ‘surprise’ at a crisis that happens every year, as well as deep-rooted social issues that resurface in times of hardship—thuggery, exploitation of others’ needs, and the erosion of values.
In light of the repeated failure of ‘modern solutions’, perhaps the answer lies in a return to old ways. Just as traffic lights disappeared years ago, replaced by a feeble traffic officer unable to blow his whistle or even name the street he supposedly controls—in an era of ‘wave your way through’, which society has accepted without complaint.
Perhaps we, too, should consider a serious return to the kerosene stove. That might be the only way to escape this farcical crisis, at least until divine intervention relieves us of the reality that sees Egypt’s natural gas being exported at rock-bottom prices, keeping Europe and others warm in a clearance sale of our resources.
This article is originally published by AlBorsa in Arabic and later AI-translated by South Push.