Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2000 15:56:00 +0300 (BEAUT)
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CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN News Briefs (Friday 6 October 2000)

CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Red Cross alert on Ghor province
AFGHANISTAN: Emergency operation targets 180,000
AFGHANISTAN: UN aims to 'stabilise people in home areas'
AFGHANISTAN: Krygyzstan offers to host peace conference
UZBEKISTAN: Drought assessment mission delayed
UZBEKISTAN: UNICEF warns of multiple health threats


AFGHANISTAN: Red Cross alert on Ghor province

The ICRC on Tuesday warned of malnutrition and increasingly harsh living
conditions as a result of the current drought for rural Afghan
communities, particularly in the central province of Ghor. Most wells and
some springs were dry, the harvest of wheat - the main staple food - was
"catastrophic" and some 5 percent to 10 percent of families had already
left for cities (mostly the western city of Herat) in search of relief, it
said. Some 2,000 newly-displaced families have arrived in Herat since June
(mostly from Ghor and Badghis), according to the Office of the UN
Coordinator for Afghanistan. 

The drought had also taken a huge toll on incomes by ruining crops,
killing thousands of livestock, causing a severe drop in livestock prices
(as a result of a glut on the market) and resulting in a shortage of wool
for women to engage in carpet-weaving - their main source of income, the
ICRC stated. 

AFGHANISTAN: Emergency operation targets 180,000

Within Ghor, Chagcharan district was most affected, with moderate and
acute malnutrition cases recorded in almost all villages assessed,
according to the ICRC. Peoples' increasingly frugal diet lacked adequate
vitamins, minerals and protein and the severity of the food situation was
reflected in the drastic coping mechanism of young boys being sent to
remote mountains to catch grasshoppers and gather wild fruits or seeds,
the Red Cross stated. 

The ICRC said it planned to assist some 20,000 families (or an estimated
160,000 people) in Ghor province, targeting 15,000 families in Chagcharan
and 5,000 in Shahrak with food, blankets and/or warm clothing and health
services, before the onset of winter in the coming weeks.  Most of Ghor
province remained under Taliban control and was "calm but tense" at the
moment, it said. The main logistical constraints were very poor road
conditions and the fact that Chagcharan becomes inaccessible after the
first snowfall. The estimated transport time by truck from the ICRC's
logistics centre in Peshawar (northwest Pakistan) and Chagcharan - via
Kabul, Kandahar and Herat - is 17 to 18 days. 

AFGHANISTAN: UN aims to 'stabilise people in home areas'

The current drought was affecting the entire western region of Afghanistan
to varying degrees, with the worst affected areas being Chagcharan and
Shahrak in Ghor, and Jawand and Qadis districts in Badghis province, the
Office of the UN Coordinator stated on Tuesday.  The overall strategy of
the humanitarian community was "to stabilise people in their areas of
origin, and to provide live saving support (food and shelter) to those who
have no option but to move," it said. 

WFP planned to deliver some 30,000 mt of wheat to the Western region over
the next six to eight months for emergency interventions only, according
to the weekly update from the UN Coordinator's office. "In the most
affected districts of Chagcharan and Jawand it is expected that food will
be distributed up to 90 percent of the population," it said. In the
southwest, the effort to mitigate the human suffering due to drought
continues with WFP emergency food aid distributions in Kandahar, Zabul and
Uruzgan provinces, while food for asset creation and food for work schemes
were ongoing in Zabul and Kandahar, it said. [for full report, go to: 
http://www.pcpafg.org]

AFGHANISTAN: Krygyzstan offers to host peace conference

The Krygyz government, already experiencing the negative consequences of
the conflict in Afghanistan and "interested in a speedy settlement of this
conflict", on Wednesday offered to host a peace conference in the Kyrgyz
capital Bishkek. "Given the consent of Afghan leaders, we shall be ready
to create all the necessary conditions for the peace talks,"  the Russian
Itar-Tass news agency quoted Askar Aitmatov, head of the international
section of the presidential administration, as saying.  Aitmatov said
Krygyzstan was "not overestimating its abilities" but hoped that the
leaders of the various Afghan factions would finally sit down at a
conference table to work out decisions suiting all the sides concerned,
the report added. 

UZBEKISTAN: Drought assessment mission delayed

Drought continues to have a devastating impact on crops and livestock, and
to cause a rapid deterioration in health and sanitary conditions, in
Uzbekistan, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
reported on Tuesday. A joint FAO/WFP food and crop assessment, due to have
started 10 September, has been delayed by the fact that Uzbekistan is not
a member of the FAO but an alternative solution was actively being sought,
OCHA stated in a drought situation report. 

Within Uzbekistan, the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan was among the
regions most affected, with crops having failed due to a shortage of
irrigation water from the Amu Darya River - the main source of surface
water in the affected areas, UNICEF stated in a drought update on 27
September. The reasons being given for this drought were low precipitation
levels at the source of the Amu Darya in Tajikistan;  inadequate water
management at local and inter-state levels; and a reduction in water
levels in shallow drinking wells throughout Karakalpakstan as a result of
lower than average rainfall since the mid-1990s, it stated. 

UZBEKISTAN: UNICEF warns of multiple health threats

Drinking water, if available, was frequently contaminated with salt, heavy
metals, faecal matter, pesticides and fertilisers, with levels of
contamination frequently exceeding the level of safety indicated by WHO,
according to the UNICEF report. Infant and maternal mortality rates were
higher than average for Central asia, the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) 
was extremely high in places, unsanitary conditions gave rise to a high
level of diarrhoeal disease and nutritional status had certainly declined
- though no official statistics were available, it said. 

UNICEF's response would involve strengthening primary health care capacity
in Karakalpakstan, Khorezm, Kashkdaraya and Surkhnadrya;  increasing water
supply and sanitation activities - including desalination, well-drilling,
water tankering, hygiene and excreta disposal education; and special
measures for particularly vulnerable, the agency said. A real danger was
that "the Uzbek population, on the brink of poverty for many years, will
now be pushed into severe poverty as the result of this drought," it
added. [for full UNICEF update, go to: http://reliefweb.int/]

[ENDS]

[IRIN-Asia: Tel: +92 300 50 44 69 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: 
irin@ocha.unon.org ]


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