WFP says 30 % Sri Lankan families go without food for days

[monson]

‘It is incorrect’ says Health Ministry

The World Food Programme (WFP) has said that soaring food prices in Sri Lanka had left 30 per cent of families without food for days.

In a statement issued from Yokohama, the United Nations WFP cited Sri Lanka as one of the worst affected countries due to spiralling cost of living where the cost of rice has doubled over the past year.

Welcoming a recent Japanese grant of USD 7.7 million to purchase rice and canned tuna for the famished Sri Lankans, the WFP said their budget requirement had increased by 43 per cent due to higher prices. This has caused a shortfall of USD 40 million through the end of December.

The WFP said the funds would be used to provide food for malnourished children, pregnant women, nursing mothers, the sick and the elderly.

A senior Trade Ministry official disputed the WFP assertion. Their estimate couldn’t be true, he said. "We’ll like to know the basis on which this assessment was made," he said.

Naturally we’ll have to assume the WFP Japan Office based its statement on the data provided by the WFP Office in Colombo, he said. "This is nothing but humiliation," he said. Repeated attempts to contact the Colombo Office failed yesterday.

An authoritative Health Ministry official said, although the claim that rising food prices had left 30 per cent families without food for days seemed incorrect, the country was facing an acute health crisis with children less than five years of age suffering from chronic malnutrition (13.5 per cent) and anaemia (30 per cent). "School children, too, also increasingly threatened by chronic malnutrition and anaemia," the spokesman said. A recent survey which coincided with the launch of the National Nutritious Month in June highlighted the urgent need to address the issue.

At the 35th session of the SAARC Standing Committee which concluded its two-day deliberations on Wednesday the need to set up a Food Bank was agreed upon.

The Standing Committee comprises the Foreign Secretaries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. According to the WFP, Bangladesh has received USD 7.9 million from Japan while the third beneficiary was Timor Leste. Altogether, the WFP has received USD 17.8 million on behalf of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Timor Leste.

-http://www.island.lk/2008/08/01/news1.html

 

[lkdood]

now some will say that -World Food Programme (WFP)- is LTTE ?

Very sad about the people

World Food Programme (WFP) is a respectable organisation

when food prices go up its hard to feed the family

 

[damannaked]

hahaha,
y no replies for this post by our patriotic mahinda supporters....??????

as usual government refusing it..as IKDOOD said government will say they WFP also supporting LTTE and UNP.. thats da only beat mahinda and core knows how to play. and they think v civilians vill dance for it everyday... if ppl dont hv to struggle so much to find a way to get something to eat i am sure they will b on the road trying to send this government home.

hmm cumon mihda supporters wut u guys hv to say???