18 Aug 2008 09:16:00 GMT
Source: Merlin - UK

Afghanistan is experiencing its most severe drought in eight years, with
farming communities in the northern provinces being the hardest hit. In
these areas where crops and livestock are dependent on rainfall rather
than irrigation, an Afghan minister reported that 1.5 million people are
in need of urgent humanitarian relief.

Droughts are a long-term rather than new phenomenon in Afghanistan, but
there has been a marked increase in their frequency over recent years
that officials have blamed on global warming. The accumulative effect of
these cyclical droughts coupled with abnormally high summer temperatures
have made 2008 an exceptionally bad year. Food shortages have further
been exacerbated by the global rise in food prices and ongoing conflict.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), prices of
basic foods like meat, cereals and dairy products rose by an average of
53 per cent from 2007 to 2008.

"Families are now finding themselves increasingly vulnerable to chronic
malnutrition as the struggle to find affordable food becomes harder,"
said Neva Khan, programme manager for Afghanistan.

Merlin is working alongside the Ministry of Health in the north eastern
districts of Badakshan and Kunduz, in 58 health facilities. In these
areas staff have witnessed a knock-on effect between poor diet and
susceptibility to disease:

"We have seen cases of acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea and
measles in our clinics - these cases are likely to increase as the
impact of drought and food shortage is felt more and more in these
localities", Neva Khan reported.

Lack of clean drinking water is also having direct implications on
people's health. With temperatures reaching over 40ºC, many springs and
wells have dried up. Some families are having to walk for hours to find
water, or in some cases drink dirty water from rivers, making them
vulnerable to water borne diarrhoeal diseases.

Merlin is currently training community health workers to recognise and
manage diseases caused by malnutrition and the lack of safe drinking
water. We are also planning to work with the Ministry of Health to
improve community water supplies and provide clean water to 38 local
health facilities which do not have a clean water supply.

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