Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>Oshikoto region is one of the regions in Namibia facing extreme hunger and drought.<\/p>\nThis was brought to the fore by the Onayena constituency councillor Mateus Kamati and his Eengodi constituency counterpart Protasius Neshuku, who said the dire situation has been worsened by the poor rainfall recorded this year.<\/p>\n
It meant most households have no harvest to store for the winter season.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are really suffering because they are facing hunger. I have pleaded with my community members to help out one another with food while we wait for the government to come through. I\u2019m sure the government will not let us die from hunger,\u201d said Kamati.<\/p>\n
Kamati furthermore highlighted that the majority of the youth in his constituency are unemployed, even after graduating from university.<\/p>\n
This does not help the already dire situation, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe youth are now demoralised, no longer have hope and have opted to drinking alcohol and being at nasty places. It is really concerning because if you have the youth that is the backbone of the country suffering, then something really needs to be done. Our youth are really suffering,\u201d lamented Kamati.<\/p>\n
To arrest the situation, he proposed that those who work for the government and in the private sector should retire at the age of 55 to create employment for young people. \u201cVacancies are frozen. They are not advertised because of the economic downturn. Companies have no money to pay new recruits,\u201d said Kamati.<\/p>\n
Another challenge the constituency is confronted with is poor telecommunication and road infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cNetwork here is really poor especially when you go to Ambuda, Iihongo, Onamutene and Ethindi. This centres have no network signals and you cannot make any calls nor receive any while you are there,\u201d said councillor Kamati.<\/p>\n
Intervention<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Oshikoto Regional Council CRO Christella Mwenyo said OPM will commence with the drought relief programme for the 2023\/2024 financial year soon.<\/p>\n
Mwenyo, in an interview with Nampa yesterday, said the council has a very limited budget to assist the constituencies at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe OPM has planned meetings to come to all the regions to give us details on how the new drought programme is going to work, so the meeting for Oshikoto region will only be on 29 September and that is where we are going to get the new conditions of how this programme is going to work,\u201d said Mwenyo.<\/p>\n
She further said that as much as there are many in need, there will be strict criteria for who should be assisted and who will not receive assistance. \u201cThe OPM is going to share with us the conditions of how this programme is going to work and that\u2019s when we are going to start implementing the drought programme,\u201d added Mwenyo.<\/p>\n
Neshuku in an interview with Nampa on Monday said people from his constituency come to his office at Onamishu on a daily basis complaining of hunger.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround two to three people always come crying at our office, asking for food,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Neshuku said he sometimes receives phone calls from people saying they do not have anything to eat at their houses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe rarely receive food from the governor\u2019s office to give to our people who are really in need, thus we want our government and any Samaritan to donate food to our office,\u201d said the constituency councillor.<\/p>\n
National hunger<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the Office of the OPM announced that between July and September this year, approximately 579 000 people in Namibia are estimated to be facing high levels of acute food insecurity.<\/p>\n
This situation, the OPM said, requires urgent humanitarian assistance.<\/p>\n
When launching the 2023\/2024 Livelihood Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis (VAA), OPM executive director I-Ben Nashandi said most households do not have any food stocks during the current period. Most have also indicated that they will have stocks lasting less than one month, and those who had stocks lasting between one to three months have already depleted their food stock.<\/p>\n
Consequently, \u201chouseholds have already experienced difficulties in purchasing food due to a lack of income and high unemployment rates.\u201d It is projected to get even worse as during the period between October 2023 and March 2024, the number of people expected to experience food insecurity would further rise to 695 000, amounting to roughly 26% of the population.<\/p>\n
The OPM conducts annual VAA to inform policy and further aid the understanding of threats of natural and socio-economic disasters to food and nutrition security in the country. Namibia experienced below-normal and sporadic rainfalls that subjected communities to prospects of lower crop yields, impacts on livestock, and ultimately reduced household food stocks, compromising food security at household levels.<\/p>\n
The agriculture ministry states in their crop prospects, food security and drought situation report for July 2023 that the 2022\/23 estimates show that the nation has harvested 153 000 MT, which is 9% less than the harvest of 168 200 MT from the previous season (2021\/22), but 23% above the 10 years\u2019 average production of 124 200 MT.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the anticipated El Nin\u0303o, which is likely to affect us during the 2023\/24 agricultural season, the situation in the country will be negatively affected due to more dry and limited rainfall, which could put food security in the country at risk,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
At regional level, the food-insecure population ranges from 15% both in the Erongo and Khomas regions, and 30% and 40% in the Kavango West and Kavango East regions, respectively.<\/p>\n
For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Heinrich Africa-Press – Namibia. Oshikoto region is one of the regions in Namibia facing extreme hunger and drought. This was brought to the fore by the Onayena constituency councillor Mateus Kamati and his Eengodi constituency counterpart Protasius Neshuku, who said the dire situation has been worsened by the poor rainfall recorded this year. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":54096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-54097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\n
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