CIVIL Society Scaling up Nutrition (CSO SUN) says the Government’s release of K2 million for 1.5 million flood victims means K1.33 allocation for each of them which is unacceptable.
The alliance has since asked the government to quickly mobilise more resources to go towards supporting food aid to people affected by floods countrywide.
CSO-SUN country coordinator Mathews Mhuru said while he commended the Government for releasing K2 million towards mitigating the effects of floods and hunger in the affected areas across the country, the money was not enough to support all the affected 1.5 million people.
“Simple calculations show that if divided by the total number of people affected by the floods as announced by the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit, government has only allocated K1.33 which cannot even afford a single meal,” Mhuru said.
“Our fear therefore is that this support will only go to a few people, leaving many of the affected families by hungry. Delays to mobilise support will be catastrophic with the most at risk being pregnant women, breast feeding mothers and children,” he added.
Mhuru said Government should engage Cooperating partners to consider supporting the cause to ensure that no one dies of hunger in the affected areas.
He expressed fear that more children were likely to die of malnutrition as cases of severe acute malnutrition were likely to increase due to lack of food in the affected areas particularly in Northern, Luapula, North Western and Eastern provinces.
“We understand that fighting the Coronavirus pandemic is a priority for the government and their partners however, no one should ignore the hunger caused by floods which should also be treated as an emergency,” he said.
“CSO-SUN further wishes to appeal to the government to see to it that the relief food packages meets the dietary needs of the vulnerable people.
The distribution of mealie meal alone promotes mono diets and the hidden hunger, which is detrimental to the fight against malnutrition,” added Mhuru.
©Kalemba May 7, 2020
