The deluge in Kerala has caused a scarcity of fuel and medicine.

Panic about the impending fuel crisis led to long queues at petrol pumps across the state on Friday. A senior official at Bharat Petroleum’s Kochi refinery said the company had been unable to send fuel to many retail outlets. “Many places are still under water,” explained George Thomas, general manager in charge of administration and public relations. “Traffic is banned on the damaged roads so movement of tanker vehicles has come to a standstill.”

KP Sivanandan, president of the All Kerala Federation of Petroleum Traders, also said the fuel shortage has been caused by a disruption in the supply chain. “Tanker vehicles could not supply fuel after floods ravaged Central Kerala,” he said. “This has affected all 14 districts.”

Oil companies mainly use tankers to supply fuel in Kerala.

Adding to the problems, Thomas said, is the fact that over 400 petrol pumps in Thrissur, Ernakulam, Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha districts are submerged. “They include franchise outlets of Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum,” he said.

The submerged pumps will be able to resume operations only after their storage tanks are cleaned, Thomas said. “But the cleaning process can start only after the water recedes,” he added. “So it may take many days to restore normalcy.”

In Thiruvananthapuram, however, the district administration dismissed reports of a fuel shortage. K Vasuki, the collector, on Friday ordered all petrol pumps to keep a minimum 3,000 litres of diesel and 1,000 litres of petrol as reserve stock. “Preference should be given to vehicles engaged in flood relief operations,” his order read.

On Thursday, the state government had asked oil companies to provide adequate fuel at the sites of rescue operations. Massive rescue operations are underway in Thrissur, Pathanamthitta and Ernakulam where the Army, Air Force, navy, National Disaster Response Force, Coast Guard, Fire Force and thousands of civilian volunteers are helping stranded people get to safety using motorised boats. “We are ensuring enough fuel supply for the boats engaged in rescue operations,” Thomas said.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has promised that rescue operations will be completed by Friday evening.

Much of Kerala started flooding on August 8, when the southwest monsoon, which began on May 29, regained strength. The situation worsened when excessive rainfall rapidly filled up the state’s 62 big dams, forcing the government to open 35 of them. Much of the damage was caused after water from Mullapperiyar and Idukki reservoirs was released into the Periyar river, submerging hundreds of towns and villages along its course. The floods and landslides they triggered had killed 184 people by Friday, according to the chief minister. He said that 324 people had been killed since the beginning of the monsoon.

Medicine shortage

According to All Kerala Chemists and Druggists Association, the floodwaters have submerged over 1,500 pharmacies, causing a medicine shortage. “The majority of them are in Pathanamthitta, Thrissur, Ernakulam and Alappuzha districts,” said the association’s president AN Mohan.

He estimated that medicines worth crores of rupees have been destroyed. “The state will face scarcity of drugs in the current situation,” he added.

Health officials said they are trying to ensure all relief camps receive the essential medicines as several inmates have already taken ill. An official coordinating relief operations in Wayanad wrote on Facebook that the district urgently requires, among other things, 1,000 packets of sanitary napkins; 10,000 kg of bleaching powder; 10,000 tablets of paracetamol, 5,000 of vertin, 500 each of azithromycin and amoxicillin; and budamite with rotahaler.

Mohan said all pharmaceutical companies have been asked to ensure the supply of essential medicines in the coming days. “We have requested them to make available buffer stock of life-saving medicines in all retail outlets,” he said.