About eight million vulnerable people in Zimbabwe will need food and healthcare assistance this year, a recent survey has revealed.
In a report titled Zimbabwe 2012 Consolidated Appeal released last week by the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, about half the country’s population will benefit from the $272 million set aside for humanitarian aid this year.
The report said this year’s appeal was divided into clusters that revealed most of the aid was highly required for food aid and agriculture.
“(About) 1,446 million vulnerable people are at risk of food insecurity,” reads part of the report.
“A third of the population uses unsafe water, (there is a) 13, 7% HIV prevalence rate, 3,488 million children (are) vulnerable, including orphans, three million women need assistance and one million children under five years (are) at risk of malnutrition.”
The report said major humanitarian needs in Zimbabwe were related to food security and the continued threat of disease outbreaks.
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Other requirements were also linked to specific needs of a wide range of highly vulnerable groups, such as child or female-headed households, the chronically ill, internally displaced people, returned migrants and refugees and asylum-seekers.
The report said there had been an improvement in the food security situation in 2011.
According to the report about 1,026 million people (12% of the population) would require food assistance at the peak of the 2012 lean season, between January and March.
“Rates of chronic and acute child malnutrition still stand at 34% and 2,4%, respectively,” the report said.
“A third of rural Zimbabweans still drink from unprotected water sources and are thus exposed to waterborne diseases.”