JOHANNESBURG, Dec 22 (AFP) - The World Food Programme (WFP) has been forced to cut food aid to some 2.6 million Zimbabweans after donors came up with less than half the funds requested by the UN agency, it said on Monday.
The WFP said that in July this year it had appealed for 311 million dollars to feed 6.5 million people in southern Africa through to June 2004.
"However, to date donors have only come forward with less than half of what's needed, leaving a 161.3 million-dollar shortfall. Two-thirds of the overall amount is needed for Zimbabwe, where more than four million people will need WFP assistance by January."
It also warned that the outlook for the first quarter next year looks "even worse", a further blow for an impoverished country where hyperinflation is rampant and one-in-three adults is HIV-positive
"Zimbabwe's lean season starts in January, a period when granaries tend to be empty and people enduring food shortages are most reliant on food aid," the WFP said.
"Without sufficient food people won't have enough energy to cultivate crops for the year's first harvest.
"Few people still have income or savings to buy staple foods which have jumped in price by nearly 50 percent in the last few weeks, putting them out of reach of the average family.
"Inflation on some commodities is running at over 500 percent. In most rural areas, there is simply not enough food to go around. Overall, food security is rapidly deteriorating."
In urban areas, the agency said, water and sewerage systems are nearing collapse due to a lack of foreign currency to purchase spares and water purification chemicals.
"This, combined with poor hygiene, has heightened the likelihood of cholera, dysentery and diarrhoea outbreaks, which could significantly impact a weakened population's ability to assimilate what little food they have access to.
"Compounding the food shortages is the spread of HIV/AIDS. Zimbabwe has an adult prevalence rate of 33 percent and some 23 percent of farm labourers are estimated to have either already died or are too sick to work.
"Meagre resources meant for agricultural production are increasingly being diverted to care for the sick and to pay for funeral expenses."
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