|
Back to Index
Humanitarian
situation in Zimbabwe still grave, UN cautions
UN
News Centre
August 07, 2009
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31713&Cr=zimbabwe&Cr1
With not enough food
to feed all 12.5 million Zimbabweans and funding requirements to
provide urgently-needed aid only half met, the United Nations humanitarian
arm today warned that the situation in the Southern African nation
remains acute.
Even with commercial
imports, there will be a 180,000 ton cereal deficit for 2009-2010,
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
said.
According to an assessment
by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme
(WFP) and Zimbabwean Government, only 1.4 million tons of cereal
will be available domestically, compared to the more than 2 million
needed.
Even assuming that 500,000
tons will be imported, there will still be a significant gap, OCHA
warned.
The FAO-WFP assessment
found that in spite of increased agricultural production this year,
with the maize crop to have more than doubled, high food insecurity
persists in Zimbabwe. This year's abundant rainfall has resulted
in the amount of maize harvested - 1.14 metric tons -
recording a 130 per cent increase over 2008. But study warned that
this winter's wheat harvest is only expected to yield 12,000
tons, the lowest ever, due to the high cost of fertilizers and seeds,
farmers' lack of funds and the unreliable electricity supply
for irrigation.
Some 600,000 households
will also be receiving agricultural help - supplied by non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and funded by 10 donors - in the form
of seeds, legumes and fertilizer, OCHA said today.
FAO suggested that additional
resources be channeled into providing top-dressing fertilizer, which
is needed later than at seed planting, but cautioned that it must
reach farmers before the end of this November.
Only 47 per cent of the
$718 million needed to assist Zimbabwe, less than half has been
committed to date, OCHA noted.
The funds are intended
to boost access to clean water for 6 million people, feed nearly
3 million people and assist 1.5 million children in getting educations.
Currently, 22,000 children
under the age of five in Zimbabwe are in need of being treated for
severe acute malnutrition, while maternal and child under-nutrition
is largely responsible for over 12,000 deaths, or one-third, of
all deaths of all under-five children.
OCHA reported today that
while no cholera cases or deaths from the disease have been reported
in the country since early last month, nearly10,000 cumulative cases
and over 4,200 deaths have occurred.
Aid agencies have been
preparing for another outbreak by pre-positioning emergency kits
around the country.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
