By IANS
Jaffna : Nutrition surveys by the Sri Lankan government and international agencies show rising levels of acute malnutrition in the northern district of Jaffna.
Livelihoods and markets have been disrupted by conflict and displacement, the closure of a major highway, and security-related restrictions on farming and fishing. Food assistance for the internally displaced and other vulnerable groups has been in short supply for months, reports UN-backed news agency IRIN.
Jaffna's Government Agent K. Ganesh says that 96,500 families, 51 percent of the Jaffna population, are farmers or farm labourers. Their productivity has been hit hard by the lack of fertiliser and other farm inputs and because nothing is produced in land in military-controlled high security zones.
Severe restrictions imposed by the Sri Lankan military also limit the livelihoods of the 17,500 fishing families (nine percent of the population) whose production is only an estimated 10 percent of pre-conflict levels of output.
The closure in August 2006 of the A9 highway – the vital transport route linking Jaffna peninsula to the rest of Sri Lanka – meant limited amounts of goods could only be transported by ship and airfreight, hampering aid deliveries and markets.
About 165,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Jaffna, heavily reliant on food assistance, are particularly vulnerable.
The Sri Lankan Commissioner General of Essential Services (CGES) says his office provides government food to 45,000 of these IDPs and vulnerable people and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is responsible for 120,000 more.
Said Ganesh: "Food is available through the Multi-Purpose Cooperative Societies [MPCS] which give some (free) rations to IDPs." But WFP says it has been a challenge to meet its food-assistance goals for Jaffna.
"For months WFP has experienced difficulties in moving food to Jaffna for the IDPs and vulnerable communities affected by the closure of the A9," Jean-Yves Lequime, acting country director for WFP, told IRIN.
"We need more food to go (to Jaffna district) as WFP's food is for the most vulnerable, the ones who can't afford to pay for it."
Nonetheless, Lequime said the supply situation was improving. He said CGES had said it would allow the WFP to ship at least 1,500 tonnes monthly.
WFP says it needs to ship more than 2,500 tonnes a month to adequately feed the 120,000 people. "So far," says Lequime, "we have been able to only supply 20 percent of what is needed."
The agency reports that 830 tonnes of WFP mixed food arrived in the peninsula in early July and 700 tonnes of wheat flour in June. This is a marked improvement over May when only 200 tonnes of flour arrived.
"This noticeable effort should be sustained over time so there are no breaks in distribution to poor households," said Lequime.
At Our Lady of Refuge welfare centre, a converted school next to a large church in Jaffna town, Father Reggie Rajeswarn spoke about the condition of 28 IDP families sheltered in the church's assembly hall.
They and hundreds of others had fled shelling by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Alaipiddi town last year. "The shortage of food is very acute," he said. "People are going hungry and I think there is malnutrition."
The refugees have used up their resources: "We pawned our jewellery, even our bicycles and our radios," just to buy vegetables and other food, Rosario Selvajam told IRIN.
At another welfare camp, Jasantha Arul Nasensan said: "We are now down to two, sometimes one meal a day. Since January there has been little attention paid to us."
The extent of malnutrition is now being more formally documented.
"Malnutrition is there in the schools," said V.T. Selvaratnam, director of education for Jaffna district. "(The government) assessed 7,000 girls and found 28 percent with a low body mass index, indicating malnourishment is there."
It is not just the lack of rice or flour that is causing the nutritional crisis.
"The lack of protein is the issue," Ganesh said.
A UNICEF official supported his view: "There is a serious impact of people not getting enough protein because fishing is so restricted for security reasons and because people can't afford to buy fish, chicken, eggs or meat in the market."