IRIN
AFGHANISTAN: Country faces severe drought - WFP
15 September 2004


[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

KABUL, 15 September (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) says more than 
50 million dollars is needed to tackle the severe drought now facing the 
country. According to the WFP, some 1.4 million Afghans have been affected by 
continued drought and crop failures.

"We are facing a very significant problem. This is said to be the worst drought 
in living memory, causing severe water shortages and leaving thousands, if not 
millions, of Afghans unable to meet their basic food needs this year," Maarten 
Roest, an information officer for WFP, told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul, 
on Wednesday. "It is estimated that over six million people will be affected."

He said that, following an emergency appeal by the Afghan government on 1 
September, WFP was gearing up to execute drought response activity aimed at 
assisting the most vulnerable people in 14 provinces in northwestern, southern, 
southwestern and southeastern Afghanistan severely affected by drought, as well 
as insecurity and disease.

Analysis of the 2004 National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA) reveals 
that 37 percent of the population, almost 6.5 million people, are not able to 
meet their minimum food requirements and are thus the top priority for 
assistance.

Roest added that they had contributed to the drought response, along with the 
government and other UN agencies, and that this common effort led to the 
governmental appeal of 1 September. Out of the US $71 million requested, some 
$52 million was for WFP's food-related participation in the drought response, 
he noted.

The UN agency's response, targeting 1.4 million people in the affected areas, 
required an additional maximum of 80,000 mt of mixed food commodities, valued 
at $52 million, to be distributed from September 2004 until next year's harvest 
in May 2005, Roest explained.

Although the WFP had sufficient food stocks available to respond to the most 
immediate needs, shortfalls were expected to occur from November 2004 if the 
additional food requirements were not resourced immediately, he said.

The Crop and Food Supply Assessment 2004, which was carried out in July by UN 
agencies and Afghan government ministries shows that, compared to last year's 
exceptionally good harvest, crop losses amount to 70 percent in the worst 
affected areas.

WFP official said that the most vulnerable areas lay in southern, western and 
southeastern Afghanistan, including Nimroz, Kandahar, Paktika, Zabul, Kunar, 
Logar provinces and the northeastern Faryab area.

WFP will target these food insecure areas in the 12 drought affected provinces 
where food assistance had a comparative advantage, in particular in areas where 
there was no winter/spring access to markets and where cash interventions were 
either not operational or were constrained by insecurity, Roest said.


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