20/10/2007
Food Stocks For Uganda's Flood Victims Dangerously Low

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned this week that a shortage of funds for its relief operations in flood-hit parts of Uganda could spell disaster for hundreds of thousands of people there. “The situation is dire for hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their homes, their belongings and most of their crops,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran.

She pointed out that the consequences could be dire for the young. “It can take just days for the effects of acute malnutrition to claim the life of a child.”  Massive flooding this year in Uganda has badly affected some 300,000 people, with crop losses in some areas as high as 90 per cent. And WFP warned that continued flooding means normal planting in September and October will be delayed, with no harvest until February at earliest.

The agency needs $17 million to buy food for flood victims and $3.2 million to provide trucks, boats, aircraft and emergency road and bridge repairs on behalf of the humanitarian community.
So far, WFP has helped thousands of hungry people and airlifted food and other assistance by helicopter on behalf of other agencies to marooned communities.

But it has received only one fifth of the amount in its flood appeal three weeks ago. “We are quickly running out of food, and before long, thousands of flood-hit families will have nothing else to eat,” said Ms. Sheeran, adding that WFP has been forced to bridge the food gap by drawing heavily from food stocks destined for thousands of internally displaced people and refugees.

Without new contributions, WFP's food assistance supply line for a total of 1.7 million people in Uganda will break in December.