Ahead Of Afghan Winter, UN Agency Already Pre-Positions Food Aid
Stealing a march on winter, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today it had already started
pre-positioning food supplies for nearly half a million impoverished Afghans who will be cut off from markets once the
cold weather sets in.
“Winter is a brutal time for poor and needy Afghans,” WFP country representative Charles Vincent said in Kabul,
the capital. “There are literally tens of thousands of people trapped by heavy snowfalls and freezing winds, and they
have absolutely no way of getting food.
“These are the people that WFP is determined to assist. Winterization is WFP’s largest annual operation in Afghanistan
and requires enormous planning. Food must be trucked to some of the remotest and desolate parts of the country, and then
distributed to the needy before the cold weather hits,” he added.
WFP uses creative food aid schemes to support development, including food for the construction of roads, wells and other
community assets, food for people attending training and food for school children. Poor people who are unable to join
these projects receive special rations.
Deliveries have already commenced in Badakhshan, in northeastern Afghanistan, where winter normally begins as early as
September. Around 5,900 tons of various food commodities have been allocated to remote and mountainous districts.
Some WFP operations there have been hampered by the poor state of roads and bridges that were destroyed by heavy
snowfalls and devastating floods in recent months. To alleviate blockages, WFP will provide food to workers fixing the
road between Hawzi Shah and Koofab districts. The new road will provide immense benefits to surrounding communities and
enable WFP to truck food aid to the needy.
Similarly, WFP food convoys to communities in the Pamir Mountains have been affected by the loss of a bridge in Baharak,
which was washed away by floods last week. Efforts by the local government and non-government organizations are underway
to divert the road so that WFP can dispatch food to remote and high altitude areas before the weather turns cold.
In inaccessible areas of northern Baghlan province, where many roads are in bad condition or do not exist, WFP has
provided biscuits and other food to the poor. A total of 2,400 tons of biscuits will be dispatched to an estimated
85,500 people in the province.