KATHMANDU: Scepticism among potential donors could ground a United Nations plan to deliver emergency food aid to villagers in Nepal’s drought-hit northwest.
The UN’s World Food Programme has only raised 17 per cent of the 5.4 million US dollars it says it needs to buy and deliver rice and fortified wheat to 225,000 villagers in 10 districts. The region faces an annual “hunger gap”, the period between harvests when crops run out and people survive by buying food with what they earn as labourers or with cash sent by relatives who have migrated to find work.
That historical trend is why donor nations, some of which contribute to long-term development projects in the area, doubt that this year is really different, says WFP Country Director Richard Ragan. “Donors met us with a lot of scepticism,” he told IPS on Tuesday.
Add to that the focus on political developments after April’s “people’s revolution” forced King Gyanendra to give up power, and “this emergency is kind of forgotten. We really believe it’s serious but it’s hard to be a lone voice in the wilderness,” added Ragan. What makes this year different for the people living in the hills and mountains of the area, many of whom must walk days to get to the nearest market, is that last winter was the driest on record, and it followed an unusually dry rainy season in 2005.
Already in May reports were emerging that villagers in the region were selling personal things to raise money to buy food and, in remote areas, some had resorted to eating herbs and roots.
A UN assessment mission in May found that wheat production had fallen 50 to 100 per cent in 70 village development committees (VDCs) in 10 districts. “When you have a succession of bad things happening, when you’re on the brink, one or two things can push you over the edge. And I think that’s what has happened,” said Ragan.
Under the emergency programme, each targeted household in the 10 districts will receive two months’ supply of food (80 kg of rice and 14 kg of fortified wheat) one-half before and the other half after completing 30 days of labour on a “food for work project”, such as building a mule trail. WFP says it wants to avoid the “welfare” approach of giving recipients something for nothing.
Australia is the only nation to date that has contributed to the emergency operation, and that was a “fortuitous coincidence”, says Ambassador Graeme Lade. His government had already decided to donate to WFP’s long-term work in the food-deficit region and when told of the crisis, agreed to divert one-half of that money (365,000 dollars) to the emergency.
In an interview, Lade confirmed that other potential donors are asking “why is this year any different”? Another factor, he said is, “There are lots of emergency situations around the world and it takes time to prioritise. We had money to draw upon from our budget but maybe others aren’t in the same position.”
Washington is “considering” the request and will decide by Friday, said a spokesperson at the US embassy in Kathmandu on Tuesday.
WFP has divided the emergency operation into three phases. In phase one, nearly one-half of the total food aid (1,800 metric tonnes) will be delivered to 110,000 people in the four southern-most affected districts. In phase two, just over 1,000 metric tons will go to 65,000 locals in two districts while phase three will target about 50,000 people in four districts with just over 800 metric tons of food.
To date, phase one is about 50 per cent complete, said Ragan, after WFP borrowed rice from the Nepal Food Corporation and 500,000 dollars from an internal account to purchase food. “I can feed the first 110,000 people but after that, I cannot unless donations start arriving,” he added.
Another 4.5 million dollars is needed to finance phases two and three, which will involve airlifting about one-third of the total food to be delivered. Asked if donors need to hear that people are “starving” before they will act, Ragan replied that a member of parliament from Mugu, one of the most remote districts affected, told him that when he arrived at the airport there with rice to distribute, people ripped open the bags and started eating the raw food.
“That sounds to me like people are pretty hungry,” Ragan added with a wry smile. One international worker who knows the drought area suggests that WFP should have targeted Mugu, Humla and Jumla — the most remote districts and likely the hardest hit by drought — first. A group from his organisation travelled by foot through parts of the districts earlier this month, added the worker who asked to not be identified.
“Our teams confirmed that things seemed quite serious. Water supplies were drying up and there are no crops in the fields because of the drought... they’re already rationing food and have enough to get through September. That is when the problems are going to occur.”
But he acknowledged that “Understanding the situation is extremely difficult — valleys within the same VDCs can be in very different circumstances”.—Dawn/IPS News Service
