PESHAWAR, Nov 19: The NWFP Health Department is launching a nutrition project to overcome diseases caused by malnutrition, health official said here on Tuesday.

The project, which is to be completed over a period of five years (2003-08) at an estimated cost of Rs 96.754million, has been designed to collect baseline information about nutritional status of different age and sex groups among the population.

Officials said that the project would endeavour to reduce the incidence of malnutrition in children from the present rate of 38 per cent to 20 per cent and vitamin A deficiency from 30 to 20 per cent.

It also aims at reducing the iodine deficiency disorders and iron deficiency in women between the ages of 15 and 45 years, and children by 10 per cent.

IDD, the official, said was prevalent in NWFP, especially in hilly areas of Hazara and Malakand regions.

Citing Unicef’s report of 2001, the official said that the incidence of low birth weight was between 31 per cent and 52 per cent of newborn babies, whereas 40 per cent of the pregnant women suffered from anaemia.

The same official said that promotion of breastfeeding was another important area, which would be tackled by the project.