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The Daily Journal |
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Central America By Néfer Muñoz SAN JOSE - - Some 700,000 Central Americans are suffering from hunger today, including 6,000 children at risk of starving to death, while the international aid needed to finance a 4.8 million dollar World Food Programme (WFP) emergency plan is only slowly trickling in. The situation is at its most dramatic in Guatemala, but in the mid-term, food shortages and malnutrition will also worsen in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, warned the WFP, which reported that it has only received one-third of the funds pledged by the international community. ''The current situation, especially among the children in Guatemala, is terrible. I can't remember ever seeing images like these in Latin America,'' Olga Moraga, WFP information officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, told IPS. ''We are in a high risk situation, with serious difficulties,'' WFP director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Francisco Roque, also commented to IPS. Roque explained that the drought, hurricanes and earthquakes that have hit the region in the past five years compounded the slump in international coffee prices to create severe social difficulties for this poverty-stricken region of nearly 37 million. The WFP estimates that around 60,000 Guatemalan children are suffering some degree of malnutrition, representing a 16 percent rise on the number of undernourished in 2000. Of that total, 6,000 youngsters are at serious risk of dying of hunger. 'We cannot let the children die of starvation,'' said Roque with anguish in his voice. The WFP's biggest concern is that new climate changes are being seen in the region, apparently the result of another El Niño, a current that warms the waters of the Pacific Ocean, starting in Australia, which appears every three to seven years. A lack of rain has been reported along Central America's Pacific shoreboard, where the region's main cities are located, while rainfall has been excessive along the Caribbean coast. The last El Niño occurred in 1998, causing billions of dollars in damages around the world, including substantial losses in Central America. ''If the rains are not good in May, there will be big problems in October,'' said Roque, who explained that the WFP is currently conducting a needs assessment in the highest-risk areas. The study, which is to be ready by the end of the month, is evaluating the most pressing problems faced by 30 communities in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, in order to design proposals for short, medium, and long-term solutions. The populations affected by the famine are the same ones that over the past few years have suffered the brunt of natural catastrophes - including two major earthquakes early last year in El Salvador - and severe economic difficulties, said WFP spokeswoman Moraga. Hit hardest by the hunger and malnutrition are poor peasant farmers who lost their crops last year to the drought that swept the area along the Pacific coast. According to a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), drought caused 189 million dollars in losses last year in Central America. Researchers warn that the damages will worsen if the region continues to suffer difficult weather conditions. ''In Guatemala, we have undertaken a special six-month operation aimed at assisting 155,000 people, including 59,635 children under five suffering varying levels of malnutrition,'' said Moraga. Central America, a region of 523,000 square kilometres, is made up of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Belize. The gap between rich and poor is enormous - with the exception of Costa Rica, which has the highest standard of living in the region - and poverty affects up to 80 percent of the population in countries like Nicaragua and Guatemala. A study by the United Nations chidren's fund (UNICEF) found that drought led to an increase in acute malnutrition - from 2.7 to 5.9 percent of children - in the hardest-hit parts of Honduras between July and November 2001. The Red Cross reported that it provided food aid to 7,700 families in Honduras from August 2001 to January 2002. ''This is a silent emergency,'' Roberto Escoto, UNICEF health and nutrition officer in Honduras, told IPS. He underlined that although the visible effects of malnutrition and drought are perhaps not as dramatic as those of a hurricane or earthquake, they are steadily undermining the physical and mental capacities of broad segments of society. |
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