NTT acknowledges malnutrition problem

NTT acknowledges malnutrition problem

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The number of children who have died because of malnutrition in
East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province since January this year has
reached 32, nearly three times more than the figure reported by
the local health office.

The new figure was revealed on Saturday by NTT governor Piet
A. Tallo, who had initially downplayed the problem, during a
meeting with Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi
Shihab and Minister of Social Services Bachtiar Chamsyah. The
meeting, which was held to seek ways of resolving the severe
malnutrition problem in the province, was attended by some 350
local government officials.

Piet said the big difference in the figures highlighted a
lack of coordination among local government officials, which had
resulted in a slow response to the malnutrition problem in the
province.

He gave as an example the fact that the province-owned
hospital had only reported deaths related to malnutrition after
the press started carrying headline stories about the problem two
weeks ago.

"If they had reported sooner, then action could have been
taken since earlier this year ... This is because the staff at
the lower levels are not doing anything," Piet said as quoted by
Antara.

He explained that in addition to the 13 victims found in the
regencies of North Timor Tengah, East Sumba, Belu and West
Manggarai, 10 had also been reported by Kupang Hospital, and 9 by
non-governmental organization Care International.

The number of deaths could rise if no immediate action is
taken as thousands of children in 16 regencies of the province
are reported to be suffering from malnutrition-related diseases
such as marasmus (lack of carbohydrate), kwashiorkor (lack of
protein), and combinations of the two.

Meanwhile, minister Alwi said that the malnutrition crisis in
NTT was caused by two main factors: drought and poverty.

He added that the poor work ethic among local government
officials had further exacerbated the problem as the bureaucracy
failed to respond swiftly to the crisis.

"From the reports submitted by the regents, we can conclude
that the work ethic among government officials is low, thus
aggravating the (malnutrition) problem," Alwi said.