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Food crisis hits Mozambique as drought continues
12 Feb 2004
 By Celestine Laporte

Flood victims in March 2000 attempt to catch grain leaking from sacks of food aid. Almost four years later, drought is bringing hunger to more than half a million people.
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Flood victims in March 2000 attempt to catch grain leaking from sacks of food aid. Almost four years later, drought is bringing hunger to more than half a million people.
File photo by MIKE HUTCHINGS

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LONDON (AlertNet) - Mozambique could be heading for its third consecutive year of drought, exacerbating a food crisis that is already affecting swathes of the country, aid agencies said.

Large parts of Mozambique, particularly in central and southern regions, have received less than 50 percent of normal rainfall since October, pushing the number of people in need of food aid well above half a million, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said.

“The area that suffered most last year was the southern part of Mozambique whereas we’re now picking up -- mostly through satellite, cross-checked with other ground information -- areas in central Mozambique which are also showing rather alarmingly poor rainfall figures,” Owen Calvert, vulnerability analysis and mapping advisor for the WFP in Mozambique, told AlertNet.

Recent heavy rains will not provide sufficient for crops such as maize, with the short rainy season expected to taper off in March/April.

A vulnerability assessment committee that includes the WFP recently estimated that more than 650,000 people are in need food assistance, but only 580,000 are currently receiving aid.

The sheer size and diversity of Mozambique means that many of these people live in “pockets of hunger” -- areas where food assistance is needed close to more secure areas. This is despite the fact that the north of the country is usually highly productive.

This disparity creates problems for aid agencies seeking to assess the country’s needs.

“When figures are produced at the end of the season on things like agricultural production, it masks the seriousness of the situation because we do have the high-producing area in the north, which generally produces a surplus, but this is absorbed mostly into surrounding countries,” Calvert said.

“Much as we’d like to bring it to the south where there is a deficit, the infrastructure, roads and bridges are not there or are not of a standard that makes it economic to move it down to the south.”

FOOD CRISIS ADDS TO AIDS WOES

The drought-stricken south of the country is forced to rely on imports from other countries such as South Africa, but with the whole region suffering the effects of the food crisis, the price of South African maize has risen since last year, increasing problems for countries reliant on imports such as Mozambique.

Food shortages are only part of Mozambique’s problem as the country faces the task of trying to stem the HIV/AIDS affecting the region.

“It’s not a typical emergency as we referred to an emergency five or 10 years ago, because we have the HIV problem hanging around our necks,” Calvert said. “It’s so complicated you almost long for just a simple flood that’s much more tangible. This one is so much more difficult to get a handle on.”

There are currently about 350,000 AIDS orphans in Mozambique. An estimated 14 percent of the population is HIV-positive and the situation shows no sign of improving.

“The most frightening thing that people are saying is that we haven’t even reached the peak of this damage, and if you look in the neighbouring countries you understand what they’re saying, because you’re talking about rates of 25 to 30 percent,” said Eleuterio Fenita, communications manager of World Vision in Mozambique.

HIV/AIDS exacerbates the food crisis as parents die, leaving their children to become the breadwinners of the family. This in turn means that their education suffers, creating a vicious circle, accordingly to Fenita.

Outside the pockets of hunger, people affected by HIV/AIDS can find it difficult, if not impossible, to pay for treatment.

“This is a country where the average monthly salary currently stands in the region of $35 and we’re talking about drugs where the cheapest generic ones cost about $100 a month,” Fenita said. “This is clearly beyond most people’s pockets.”

FREQUENT DISASTERS

Natural disasters such as droughts, floods and cyclones frequently hit Mozambique, though the government has taken positive steps to try to limit the impact of disasters.

“There came a point when people started asking questions as to why a disaster-prone country like Mozambique should have to go through the same thing every year,” Fenita said. “Why are we not looking for other ways of at least limiting the impact of these disasters?”

Following floods in 2000, the worst the country had seen in 50 years, the government aimed to introduce viable disaster contingency plans such as implementing irrigation schemes to counter drought conditions, building small dams to limit flooding or informing people of the likelihood of a natural disaster.

But the schemes have remained small in scale as funding from the international community for Mozambique and southern Africa has fallen short of targets set by aid agencies.

“The response has been very slow and not in sufficient volume,” Fenita said. “You wonder whether there will ever be a time when the international community will decide to take notice of the unfolding drama here in southern Africa.”

Unless action can be taken to reduce the impact of further disasters, rather than concentrating on relieving the symptoms, the interest in the crisis could wane even further.

“I’m concerned that it’s year number three (of the drought), because I would suspect that it’s going to be a lot more difficult to generate international interest,” Calvert said. “That’s when we need to have as much quantifiable information as possible to convince people from an agricultural point of view”.




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