Guatemala on Malnutrition-Famine Alert
Guatemala - Alarming malnutrition
spread in some Guatemalan areas forced the
country's authorities to declare different
alert stages, including maximum, aimed at
fighting this scourge, mostly in children.
Orange and pink are the categories
established, where those cases are more
evident.
According to local media reports, thousands
of Guatemalans that live in 4,089
communities are at high risk of suffering
famine, resulting from a drop to 80 and 60
percent in their harvest of beans and corn,
respectively.
From May to the present date, the number of
populations at risk has increased 114
percent, according to a report by the
Secretariat of Food and Nutritional
Security.
According to those data, the most affected
localities are in El Progreso, Zacapa,
Chiquimula, Jalapa and Jutiapa departments,
which are included in what is known as the
dry corridor in eastern Guatemala.
In Jalapa, where they decreed orange alert,
many people have been assisted in health
centers so far and the number of
communities, where great vulnerability has
been detected have reached 113, not meaning
that there is a large number of children
affected by malnutrition or dying of hunger,
the authorities clarified.
They decreed red alert in Baja Verapaz
department, where 160 communities from seven
municipalities have reported lack of the
necessary food for survival and the cases of
malnutrition are evident.
The country's authorities have planned
distribution, coming soon, of products as
corn, beans, fortified flour, chicken and
cooking oil, and other actions that will
also be extended to the rest of the affected
areas, to lessen the impact of those
dificulties. |
