06/07/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09930

AFGHAN RELIEF CONTINUES

The United States continues to be the largest contributor of humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan. Since 1979, the U.S. has contributed more than one billion dollars. At a January conference in Tokyo on Afghan reconstruction, the U.S. pledged the largest amount for this year –- two-hundred-ninety-six million dollars. This includes funds for education, water, sanitation, and food and for the re-integration of refugees.

The U.S. has contributed seven-million dollars for start-up costs of the Afghan interim administration. The U.S. has also provided money and staff to support a United Nations campaign to inoculate nine million Afghan boys and girls against measles and polio.

Just over ten percent of people in the countryside of Afghanistan have access to clean water, resulting in poor hygiene. "Over an extended period of time," said Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, "this has taken an enormous toll on peoples’ health.

Since the oppressive Taleban regime was overthrown, wide-scale famine has been averted and relief has been extended to millions of Afghan homes. But Afghanistan will continue to need foreign humanitarian aid for several more years. It will take at least two more years for the country’s agriculture sector to be rebuilt from the devastation of war and drought.

Before the massive movement of food relief into the country, Afghans had the lowest caloric intake of any people in the world. Malnutrition has contributed to a low life expectancy, high rates of mortality among mothers and children, and a high rate of infectious disease. The failure of fruit and vegetable crops has caused nutrient deficiencies in the population, resulting in such conditions as blindness and scurvy. Mr. Natsios said the Afghan people have survived by virtue of "coping mechanisms more sophisticated than anything I have ever seen anywhere else in the world." But, he said, "unless the agricultural system of the country is restored, the country will not come back to health."