Food security concern

FOOD security is a primary concern for the United Nations (UN) and is going to be a major focus of the UN’s response to Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasaaffected areas in the North, says UN resident co-ordinator Sanaka Samarasinha.

Mr Samarasinha said focus on food security would continue to be in the recovery phase after STC Yasa.

He said the number of people affected in that part of Fiji were already quite poor and vulnerable before STC Yasa.

“Just in the red zone and I understood from the Department of Social Welfare that there are more than 15,000 people already receiving social welfare through one of its four schemes,” Mr Samarasinha said.

“Half of them are on pension scheme and so the other half are on one of the other three schemes. Beyond that, there are some 9000-plus subsistence farmers living in the red zone.

“Based upon what I have seen, there has been destruction of homes, which now stands at around 3500 completely destroyed and some 4000 that were partially damaged in the Northern Division. There are some also in the Eastern Division and a few in the West.

“In addition to these numbers, there are many of those subsistence and semi-subsistence farmers who have lost all or most of their sources of income.

“Apart from sugar cane and rice, there are others who are small subsistence farmers growing different kinds of root crops.”

He added one of the things that was unusual was the widespread impact of livestock in the Northern Division with goats and sheep dying by the hundreds.

“This is a significant source of income for many of these farmers. In fact, in some cases people have lost 20 to 40 goats and sheep.

“This is a loss of income for some farmers, more than the cost of their houses.

“Even if their houses were partially damaged, they have now lost all of their income and these farmers or people on social welfare are going to be food insecure for the coming months and with no source of income.

“Until these people have an income, we need to make sure that there is some degree of food security and how UN can support this through with cash transfers like after TC Harold and cash for work schemes and to roll out a program which will clear the debris and carcasses of livestock.”

He also added one of the things the UN was trying to ascertain was the number of people on social welfare schemes that had been affected by STC Yasa.

Picture: JOVESA NAISUA Fiji Red Cross Society disaster management co-ordinator and STC Yasa operations manager Maciu Nokelevu gives a brief about the work FRCS is doing post Yasa.