|| Thousands of families across Dhaka are setting alarms for 2am, 3am and 4am, not to begin their workday, but to catch a few fleeting hours of gas supply before it disappears again, as Bangladesh’s worsening energy crisis forces households to reorganize their lives around empty pipelines. The prolonged shortage, triggered by the shutdown of one of the country’s two floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, has cut national gas supply to just 56% of demand, disrupting not only household cooking but also industries, power generation and transport. For Amena Begum of Mirpur-12, every night has become a race against time. After hearing from a neighbour that gas briefly returns before dawn, she now wakes around 3:30am to prepare meals for her husband and two school-going children. On one recent morning, she managed to put lentils and eggs on the stove before the flame weakened and died. The food remained half-cooked. By daylight, the gas had disappeared again. “My neighbour told me to set an alarm because gas comes around 3am,” she said. “Now we wake up before dawn to cook whatever we can. Sometimes even that isn’t enough.” Her husband, Faruk Ahmed, works in a workshop, leaving the family little room to depend on restaurant meals. An electric stove offers an alternative, but the family’s electricity bill jumped to Tk3,200 last month, an expense they can scarcely afford. Across the capital, similar scenes are unfolding. Residents in Rampura, Badda, Basabo, Dhanmondi, Kalabagan, Kathalbagan and Mirpur say gas pressure remains too low for cooking through most of the day, forcing families to prepare an entire day’s meals late at night or in the early hours of the morning. Many now rely on induction cookers, electric stoves or LPG cylinders. Others buy meals from roadside restaurants despite rising costs, while lower-income households have begun returning to wood-fired stoves. Moushumi Akhter of Rampura said she now cooks breakfast, lunch and dinner between 2am and dawn because that is the only time enough gas reaches her stove. “It is impossible to cook during the day,” she said. “I cook everything at night, refrigerate it and reheat it later. There is no other way.” Frustrated by the prolonged disruption, she questioned why households continue paying for piped gas while receiving little service. “If gas cannot be supplied properly, stop it altogether and let us use cylinders,” she said. The crisis extends far beyond individual households. Factories have reported production disruptions because of low gas pressure, while CNG refuelling stations have struggled to operate, affecting public transport across the capital. Power plants have also been forced to adjust operations as fuel supplies tighten. Officials say the immediate trigger was the shutdown of one of the two floating LNG terminals at Maheshkhali in Cox’s Bazar after a fire caused by an electrical short circuit and technical malfunction on July 21. Before the incident, the two floating storage and regasification units supplied between 1 billion and 1.05 billion cubic feet of regasified LNG to the national grid every day. With one terminal out of service, LNG supply has fallen to below 600 million cubic feet daily, reducing total national gas supply from around 2.65 billion cubic feet to about 2.15 billion cubic feet. Bangladesh’s daily gas demand, however, stands at roughly 3.8 billion cubic feet. The resulting shortfall has left Petrobangla able to meet only about 56% of national demand. Officials said repairs are underway but warned that normal supply is unlikely to resume before another 10 to 12 days. According to Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL), local engineers are working with specialists from the United Kingdom, Romania and Singapore to repair the damaged facility. Replacement equipment must be brought from overseas before the terminal can restart. Engineer Muhammad Nasir Uddin, deputy general manager (LNG) at RPGCL’s Chittagong office, said the failure of one terminal had almost halved LNG supply to the national grid. “Local and foreign experts are working together to repair the fault,” he said. “Some equipment has to be imported. Once those arrive, we expect the problem to be resolved quickly.” For households already exhausted by days of uncertainty, however, the promise of repairs offers little immediate comfort. Until gas pressure returns, thousands of families across Dhaka will continue setting alarms in the middle of the night -- not because they have to leave for work, but because that has become the only time they can cook.