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100.000 Guatemalan children risk starvation

by Vladimir Lopez 10:42pm Tue DEC 25 ' 01
address: Managua, Nicaragua C.A. info@elnuevodiario.com.ni
According to to report 100.000 Guatemalan children AT risk of starving, and hundreds of thousands dwells in region

Monday 24 of December of 2001|Managua, Nicaragua

100 thousand children to die of hunger in Guatemala * In general, the nourishing situation of Central America is serious -- to vladimir LOPEZ --

The World-wide Program of Foods, PMA, assigned to the UN, United Nations, made in Managua an urgent call to take care of more than 100 thousand undernourished children in Guatemala, those that could die of hunger in the next months if fast actions for their attention are not taken. "We must take all the actions that are necessary so that 100 thousand Guatemalan children who are in nutricional risk do not starve", it noticed the Regional Director of the PMA for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mr. Francisco Roque Castro.

The civil employee of the PMA maintains that 2,4 million people seriously were affected in their nourishing security in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Belize as a result of the earthquake impact, happened droughts, floods and hurricanes this year.

"the impact of all these natural phenomena, the deprivation of rank and privileges due to the international loss of the prices of the coffee and the diminution in the shipment of the originating familiar remittances of the United States, because of the events of the 11 of September, turn to Central America a zone of high nourishing risk", predicted the Regional Director of the PMA.

Roque Castro informed that this year, the PMA with the support of the United States, Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Holland, Finland, Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany and Canada offered nourishing attendance to 1.250.315 people in the affected countries of Central America.

"the situation could reach levels of nourishing emergency and around 700.000 people they would be in risk in the four Central American countries, while the first harvest of the year rises that happens until in the middle of August", Roque Castro expressed.

A SERIOUS YEAR FOR CENTROAMERICA

According to the World-wide Food Program, Central America the present underwent during year the worse happened natural disasters after 1998 the Mitch hurricane.

"a combination of droughts, earthquakes, floods and hurricanes affected Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, devastating cultures, destroying average of life sustainable, causing serious damages to the infrastructure and leaving in nourishing insecurity to hundreds of thousands of family", says an additional report of the PMA.

"Parallelly", it adds the report, "the fall of the international prices of the coffee are causing the loss of thousands of jobs".

"the present crisis reduces their buying capacity, in nourishing article individual. This situation is being lived in all the producing Central American countries of coffee. The fall of the prices of the coffee has had a catastrophic impact for the nourishing security of thousands of Central American families due to its combination with the natural disasters and the diminution of the familiar remittances, associated to the events of the 11 of September ", adds the report.

THE CASE OF NICARAGUA

In the report of the PMA it is indicated that Nicaragua underwent the consequence of the combination of natural disasters and the fall of the prices of the coffee. "the drought severely affected 37.000 agricultural families, taking to the nourishing insecurity to 205 thousand people when losing itself 107 thousand 729 hectares of cultures", indicates the PMA.

"In the region of the Atlantic Coast", it needs the report, "continuous precipitations in the month of July caused floods of the adjacent zones to the Prinzapolka river. 6.192 people and 59, 294 hectares of earth cultivateable were affected ".

The document remembers that the tropical storm "Michelle" also affected the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua in the month of October. More than 37 thousand people they underwent the direct consequences and 5 passed away.

PANORAMA OF THE 2002 WATCHES GRAY

The PMA notices that in the 2002, Nicaragua will experience the accumulated effect of the droughts that continuously have affected to the country from 1997.

"a great number of families has exhausted totally their reserves and more likely they will return to fall under the situation of nourishing insecurity. The fall of the international price of the coffee will have a serious impact in serious segments of the rural population ", considers the PMA.

For this organism, the rest of the countries of Central America affected by the natural phenomena also will be affected by the nourishing insecurity.

The PMA indicates that many agriculturists did not seed due to the lack of seeds, from fear of rain insufficiency, or to the practice to seed only once to the year. Many of which they seeded, lost their harvests because of the water shortage or by it whips of plagues.

"an additional element", reiterates the report, "has been the fall of the international prices of the coffee, that has contributed consequently to make difficult to the sources of entrance of great number of rural families and its buying capacity".

"Like result of this situation, it is possible to hope that thousands of families will suffer again of nourishing insecurity once his limited food reserves of they exhaust or they have spent all its money", it writes down the document.

"Although this situation varies from country to country, is possible that the situation of nourishing insecurity reach levels of emergency at beginnings of the 2002. Of being thus, that emergency would last until the first harvest of the next year in the month of August ", adds the document.

In that sense, the PMA esteem that 700.000 people could be more under nutricional nourishing risk in the four affected countries. "the situation could become still more critical in case of another natural disaster, as a new drought, which has been foretold by some specialists", diagnoses the World-wide Food Program.