Food security will worsen unless good rains come

Preliminary findings from a food and nutritional assessment survey indicate that conditions in drought-affected southern Mozambique have deteriorated, a food security official told IRIN. "Rainfall, expected anytime now in Mozambique, could improve the conditions and perhaps reduce the estimated numbers in need of food aid," said Francisca Cabral of Mozambique's Technical Secretariat for Food Security and Nutrition (SETSAN). "But as of now the drought is worse than last year, and it is not getting any better for people in the areas experiencing a fourth year of drought." The SETSAN survey covered roughly half of the country's 128 districts, updating an earlier assessment that indicated 43 percent of this year's maize production had been lost, and 580,000 people would be in need of food aid from October until March 2006. "Water, more than food, has been identified as the most urgent need. People have to travel great distances - at times 20 km to the nearest source - to access water. We have also received reports of deaths of livestock and disputes - all related to drinking water," said Cabral. SETSAN, an agency responsible for the coordination of food and nutritional security, is due to release the full survey results at the end of the month. Struggling for funds, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) is currently reaching around one-third of the people in immediate need of assistance in the provinces of Maputo, Gaza, Inhambane, Manica, Sofala and Tete, in the southern half of the country. "We are planning to scale up our operations next month, when we are expected to reach over 250,000 beneficiaries," said Kerstin Reisdorf, WFP's spokeswoman.