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| The Sri Lankan government has no foreign exchange for fuel imports.( File photo: AFP) |
Sri Lanka, suffering from the worst economic crisis, has a shortage of everything from medicine to gas.
In a country once considered relatively affluent, citizens are now returning to the age of cooking by burning wood.
While it is available, its price has gone up a lot. Some Sri Lankans have bought kerosene stoves for cooking, but the government does not have kerosene oil for importing petroleum products.
The people who have taken electric cookers have also been shocked because it is difficult for the Sri Lankan government to ensure uninterrupted power supply.
Power plants run on gas and furnace oil and generate energy all over the world. The crisis has left Sri Lanka, already reeling from the economic downturn, unable to afford these goods.
And the sector was badly affected by the Corona epidemic. MG Kronavati, a 67-year-old street vendor, has also started burning wood.
He said he now had to choose between closing his business or living with smoke.
"We burn wood and smoke when we cook, but we have no other choice," he said, adding that it was difficult to find firewood and it was becoming more expensive.
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