DILI, 16 October 2008 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is
helping the government of Timor-Leste to boost food security by
giving two warehouses a facelift and building a third, to be
operational by December.
For years President Jose Ramos-Horta has
pledged to make Timor food secure, but every year the government
finds itself struggling to transport food to villages cut off by
floodwaters or landslides.
These warehouses should allow the government to provide food to
the neediest first. Though one of the refurbished warehouses is in
Dili, the capital, another is in Lautem in the east and one will be
built in Same, in the south. These district capitals and their
satellite communities are often hardest hit by food shortages and
these three warehouses could provide food for more than 100,000
people about a tenth of the population.
"If you look at it strategically, you should not focus all your
warehouse space in one area," said Maarten van Driel, the WFP
logistics officer in charge of the project. "Especially now as the
wet season is coming."
Following a countrywide survey, the Ministry of Social Solidarity
determined that these two districts were at highest risk from food
emergencies. Timor-Leste has 13 districts and, besides warehouses in
Dili, had only two food warehouses elsewhere before the WFP project.
One of the warehouses is in Oecusse, an enclave separated by
Indonesia from the rest of the country and the other is in Maliana,
a western district capital. But Lautem and Same are also in two of
the poorest districts in the country, and a warehouse could provide
big benefits.
Van Driel said the government had stored 22 metric tonnes of
contingency rice in each existing warehouse.
Displaced people wait as food is distributed by WFP at the Don
Bosco camp in Dili. WFP filled the Dili warehouse with 800-1,200
metric tonnes of rice, which goes to school-feeding programmes and
other such projects.
"There's an opportunity to give people food near their place of
residence when it's urgently needed," said Jacinto Gomes de Jesus,
the secretary of state for social assistance for natural disasters
in the Ministry of Social Solidarity. "Another advantage is we can
buy local produce when it's available."
De Jesus said he would be happy to stock the warehouses with
whatever locally produced goods he could find, including beans and
corn, though his first priority was rice.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, farming is
the only source of income for 80 percent of all households in Timor
but so far - due in part to underdeveloped markets - whatever cash a
farmer received was marginal. De Jesus said Timor-Leste had some way
to go before it could feed itself.
"Right now there's just not enough Timorese product to buy," he
said. At present, WFP filled the Dili warehouse with 800-1,200
metric tonnes of rice, which goes to school-feeding programmes and
other such projects.
Toxic storage
Before the warehouses were restored, food in these
districts had been kept in decrepit buildings, sometimes next to
toxic substances.
"Dedicated food storage facilities are necessary to keep stock
separate," said Van Driel. "You don't want to store fuel next to
food items."
De Jesus said he planned to take the project further next year
and establish three more warehouses in other districts.
"But that's all in the planning stages right now," he said. "The
budget still has to be approved first."
jw/mw
