WFP food stocks enough for next two and a half months

Enough food stocks exist in Rwanda to meet the World Food Programme's needs for the next two and a half months at the present monthly requirement level of 2,005 mt, the UN food agency said in its situation report for November.

It reported having taken another delivery of 1,478 mt of cereals, pulses and blended foods during November; and distributed 1,782 mt to 106,051 people.

Food for work

In its food for work programme, WFP has had to suspend the development of 100 ha of rice paddy and the rehabilitation of 400 ha of the Akagera swampland in Gashora, Kigali Ngali province. Before the suspension, it said, 37 percent of rehabilitation works had been completed and 15 percent of the rice paddy works.

In Byumba province, heavy rains have contaminated water sources and contributed to increased incidence of diarrhoea. November rains have also destroyed 791 ha of cultivated land, affecting at least 7,000 households in Itabire district, Kibuye province. WFP and local authorities have identified two food for work projects to repair the flood damage and intensify soil erosion prevention activities. Another 465 persons were displaced in Mushubi district, Butare province, because of rain. WFP provided them emergency food aid.

Progress

However, there has been some progress in the food for work projects. In November, WFP reported, 880 people rehabilitated a road and swamp in the Kamama district of Gisenyi province. The beneficiaries, who received their first monthly payment of food, are mainly newly resettled people from Gisenyi town. The three-month road project is being implemented in collaboration with a local NGO, Cadimitra.

WFP and the Ministry of Agriculture also began nine land terracing activities in Ruhengeri province in November, which is to benefit some 1,800 vulnerable families. The projects are located in food insecure zones of Bugarura, Bukonya, Nyarutovu. Workers will terrace the hillsides of Gakenke, Cyintare, Rugeshi and Hunyenyeri in Nyarutovu district. A separate 10-hectare land reclamation project of the Nyacyina swamp, Nyarutovu district, is being undertaken this December.