Urgent assistance needed to combat drought

The government of Afghanistan and the United Nations launched an emergency appeal on Wednesday to combat drought in the war-ravaged country. According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), US $71.3 million is needed immediately to combat the worst effects of the drought. "The government, the United Nations and non-governmental organisations [NGOs] have launched a joint appeal to combat the worst drought that the country has faced, now in its sixth year." Manoel de Almeida e Silva, a spokesman for UNAMA, told IRIN in the capital, Kabul. He said that even though emergency assistance was continuing to reach affected areas, it was estimated that more than six million people continue to be food insecure, a doubling in the past 12 months. The severe food and water shortages had forcibly displaced a great number of farmers and villagers, he added. In the south and east of the country grain prices have almost doubled in the past year while in seven of the country's 34 provinces most of the population survive on less than the daily recommended 2,100 calories. The UN said the joint appeal would help local populations combat the consequences of the drought by funding food for work, assistance, food distribution, emergency water supply, and seeds and fertilisers. The government has formed a Drought Response Steering Committee, which has begun relief work by sending some assistance to the worst affected areas. This, however, would fall short of providing relief to all those affected, especially as winter approaches. "The quick relief work will start immediately, and has indeed started already from the Provincial Emergency Fund," Ameerah Haq, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General (DSRSG), told IRIN. "In addition to that, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have already programmed US $4.6 million with respect to water. And the World Food Programme (WFP) is already assisting 900,000 families with the provision of food." She said that of the US $71.3 million that made up the appeal, $51 million was for food aid and $20 million was for non-food items, which would address issues of water, seeds and fertilisers, and help for families who had been displaced. The people of Afghanistan have been suffering from drought for six years, Some 37 percent of the population is suffering from poor nutrition as a result of the drought, double the figure believed to have been affected in 2003. "The other reason to get the assistance out as quickly as possible is that we want to prevent any further displacement," Haq noted. Some 3,000 to 4,000 people recently left the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand in desperate search of drinking water and food, the UN spokesman said.