250,000 school children receive food from WFP

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Oct. 13: UN World Food Programme Executive Director Catherine Bertini today said a global school feeding programme for the world’s undernourished children is a key weapon in the war against hunger and poverty.

Bertini called on national governments and members of the humanitarian aid community to join her efforts to create such a progarmme.

"Feeding and educating children are key to closing the gap between rich and poor" said Bertini on the eve of this year’s World Food Day 2001, the theme of which is "Fight Hunger to Reduce Poverty."

Bertini, whose organisation is the largest provider of school meals in the developing world, says that research and decades of experience show that school feeding can immediately alleviate hunger, dramatically increase attendance, improve performance, and ultimately help educate many more girls and boys. WFP has nearly 40 years experience in school feeding and provides meals to more than 12 million school children in 54 countries.

"Study after study shows that when food is provided at school, children attend more often and they achieve and thrive," she said.

There are currently more than 300 million chronically hungry children in the world today. Some 170 million of them go to school on empty stomachs and don’t receive any food during the day, while 130 million don’t attend school at all. The majority of them are girls.

"Some people exploit ignorance and poor children are the most susceptible," she said.

"World leaders should strongly examine the benefits of school feeding as a simple but effective tool to help exterminate poverty. It also encourages children to go to school to improve their minds and to think for themselves."

Currently, WFP Nepal has been providing food to 250,000 school children at public primary schools in 16 districts of Mid and Far Western region of the country under the School Feeding Programme. The total contribution valued at US$15 million (inclusive of 23,490 MT of food contribution). The school children receive a mid-day hot meal (haluwa) made of fortified blended food (maize, wheat and soya), vegetable ghee and sugar. The School Feeding Programme also act as a vehicle for the deworming campaign for school children which can be considered as a good example of WFP-WHO collaboration.

WFP has already taken concrete steps to expand and improve its current school feeding activities and has formed partnerships with other UN agencies, such as the World Bank and the World Health Organisation, as well as a large number of charities. Recent donations from the United States, Italy, Switzerland and France have also helped the agency reach more children.

A recent contribution from the U.S. Government has enabled to expand the School Feeding Programme Nepal to cover 5 more districts making a total of 21 districts. The total additional contribution for this year is valued at US $5.8 million (inclusive of 5,460 MT of food contribution).

Post-monsoon rains cause heavy damage

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Oct. 13: This year’s monsoon, which is said to be over more than three weeks ago, remained so erratic that heavy rainfall caused disastrous results such as floods and landslides in some parts of the country, whereas the other parts witnessed severe droughts.

However, the post-monsoon drizzles and also heavy downpour, continued for almost two weeks in the eastern part of the country. During the first week of this month, heavy downpour caused damages in the eastern and mid-western regions of the country.

According to the preliminary reports of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, the monsoon withdrew from far-western region on September 16 and retreated completely from the country by September 19 - four days earlier than normal. But the total duration of monsoon was 109 days, three days longer than the normal 106 days. This year the monsoon had started on June 3, a week earlier than the normal date of June 10.

Mandira Rajbahak, Senior Divisional Meterologist, Climate Section of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, said, "Generally, monsoon begins in the eastern region and proceeds westward, but this year’s monsoon began almost simultaneously throughout the country due to combined effects of the cyclonic storms in the western part of Nepal and the moisture inflow from the Bay of Bengal to the eastern region."

The first surge of monsoon in the country was active in the western region and it remained mild in the remaining parts, she said.

According to Ms. Rajbahak, weak monsoon was recorded till the second week of July in the central region and till the end of July in the eastern region. This long duration of weak monsoon in the eastern region caused draught and draught like situation resulting in severe damage to crops, especially paddy.

"The rainfall was deficient by 40 to 60 per cent in the eastern region. Dhankuta district was the drought-affected area where the rainfall was 60 per cent below the normal value in June and July," she said.

However, active monsoon condition prevailed over the country from the end of July till the second week of September.

"This activity of monsoon was associated with the northward movement of seasonal monsoon trough and active embedded cyclonic circulatins lying close to the foothill of the Himalayas," said Ms. Rajbahak.

The monsoon was more active in the central and mid-western region during the period of July 29 to August 3, August 17 to 19 and September 1-11.

The heavy and torrential rain that ensued with active monsoon led to floods and landslides at many places of central and mid-western region resulting in the death of 140 people due to floods, landslides and thunderbolts and heavy loss of property including damages to roads. This monsoon also saw record number of rainfall in several parts.

However, this year the burst of monsoon had preceded by a good pre-monsoon rainfall activities in May with the formation of cyclonic storms in the Arabian Sea and its northward movement during the last week of May. Most parts of the country had received normal to excess rainfall in the pre-monsoon period. This had also created a favourable situation for monsoon, Ms. Rajbahak noted. But later the monsoon turned erratic with some parts getting more than normal or excess rainfall while the remaining parts witnessing draught like situation.