Food relief yet to reach famine victims in Irian Jaya

Food relief yet to reach famine victims in Irian Jaya

JAKARTA (JP): Amid fresh reports of food shortages in East
Kalimantan, hundreds of boxes of food relief for famine victims
in Puncak Jaya, Irian Jaya, are sitting in storage due to a poor
distribution system.

Antara reported that 23,000 people in Kutai and Pasir
regencies in East Kalimantan were facing food shortages because
drought had ruined their crops. Most of the people were
transmigrants in eight subdistricts in the two regencies,
according to Awang Farouq Ishak, the chief of the East Kalimantan
provincial office of the Environmental Management Agency.

However, the provincial office of the Ministry of Social
Services had dispatched rice to the residents living around
timber estates in Pasir, he said.

Awang also said hundreds were suffering from pneumonia, asthma
and diarrhea because of the drought and haze from forest fires in
the province.

Thousands of people in drought-affected East Timor and East
Nusa Tenggara are also currently facing food shortage because
their crops failed last year.

Antara also reported that around 200 big boxes of food relief
destined for drought victims in Puncak Jaya were piled up in the
provincial capital Jayapura because of a lack of air
transportation.

Sam Leimena, secretary of the local office of the disaster
management agency Satkorlak PBA, confirmed the situation.

Hundreds of people died in several regencies in Irian Jaya of
malnutrition and drought-related illnesses last year, the news
agency said.

Mission Aviation Fellowship, entrusted by the provincial
government to transport food to famine victims, has deployed 12
light aircraft to transport relief to remote areas in Jayawijaya
regency.

Leimena said, however, that the situation in Puncak Jaya was
not as bad as in Jayawijaya regency.

"That is why the government has given priority to transport
food aid to Jayawijaya," he said, as quoted by Antara.

Wirda Fakaubun, a Puncak Jaya regency official, said residents
were lamenting the soaring prices of basic commodities. She
blamed the situation not only on the monetary crisis but also
poor transportation as the regency could only be reached by air.

He said the price of a kilogram of rice in the regency was Rp
10,000 (in Jakarta, it is Rp 2,000) while a sack of cement was Rp
45,000.

According to data issued by the provincial health ministry
office, more than 5,500 people are suffering from respiratory
diseases, 50 are infected with pneumonia, 1,283 are suffering
from diarrhea, 381 are suffering from asthma and 172 are
suffering eye irritations because of the drought, haze and forest
fires.

The United Nations Development Program warned Wednesday that
the long drought and monetary crisis was threatening food
security in the country. It said that 7.5 million people living
in 15 provinces risked experiencing food insecurity until early
1999 if the prolonged dry season lasted much longer. (rms)