Funds promised to fight malnutrition

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government promised on Tuesday to allocate Rp 83.5 billion (about US$8.7 million) in emergency funds to West and East Nusa Tenggara to help resolve the malnutrition problem in the two provinces.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab said the government would disburse Rp 37.5 billion to West Nusa Tenggara and Rp 46 billion to East Nusa Tenggara within the next 10 days.

The funds would be spent on improving health facilities in the two provinces and to buy emergency nutritional food for malnourished children.

"The government will immediately disburse funds for revitalizing health centers and buying nutritious foods," said Alwi after a limited Cabinet meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

Alwi said the funds would not be entirely taken from the central government budgets, but also from local administrations at the provincial and regional level.

Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono, who also attended the meeting, said the government would also distribute some 6.8 million cashew seeds, 60 tons of corn seeds, 91 tons of nut seeds and 58 tons of green nut seeds for planting in a medium-term program to ease the malnutrition problem.

The government will also distribute 5,500 cows to the area for revitalizing the small and medium businesses in the two provinces.

Anton will led the medium-term programs, while Alwi will be responsible for dealing with short-term relief.

The government will also dispatch a team from the Ministry of Public Works to increase water supplies and repair and create irrigation systems in the two provinces to support agricultural activities.

The malnutrition cases in the two rice-surplus provinces, which made headlines nationwide, came to light in late April.

The incidence of malnutrition in the provinces was slightly higher than the national rate with the number of infants annually affected by malnutrition in the province estimated to be up to 10 percent of the total infant population in the province. The national rate is 8 percent.