Flood relief: WFP ends free food distribution

WFP claims unless it receives more donations it will be unable to provide assistance to thousands.

ISLAMABAD: Facing a shortfall of $548 million in expected donations, the World Food Program (WFP) has suspended its emergency food distribution in areas of Pakistan worst affected by the floods of 2010.

The WFP’s already meagre resources were not able to cope with the additional burden of catering to the needs of flood victims in the country. While the organisation launched a Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO) to deal with many of the internally displaced people’s nutritional needs, it was able to raise only 12 per cent of the $622.7 million it needs to finance the operation.

The agency claims that unless it receives more donations soon, it will be unable to provide life-saving assistance to the many thousands of people that depend on the WFP for their sustenance. The WFP faces an additional burden of being unable to buy food commodities from international markets as countries limit their exports this year after a sharp increase in global food prices.

In order to cope with the difficulty in procurement, the program has launched an alternative to its food distribution scheme. As floodwaters recede and local agricultural commodity markets return to normalcy, the WFP will be handing out cash to flood victims to buy their own food. The organisation already conducted a successful pilot project in Buner in 2010.

The WFP will be handing out the equivalent of the value of its food packages – which comes to Rs5,000 – to flood victims in Nowshera and Charsadda in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The money will be handed out in the form of cards which can be used at branches of United Bank.

Much of the country has begun to recover from the flooding, leaving the WFP to end its relief efforts in most areas after February. However, parts of Sindh remain submerged and over 600,000 people in Balochistan have still not been able to return to their homes. The people in these areas, coupled with refugees from the conflict in the Mohmand tribal agency, will continue to receive assistance for the next two months.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2011.