Dry weather and
insufficient rainfall
have led to severe water
and food shortages
across the nation,
with worsening effects
especially
in central Somalia and
areas bordering
southeastern Ethiopia
and northeastern Kenya.
With at least 12,000
who have been displaced,
including men who have
left their families
in search of food,
the United Nations
estimates that some
2.5 million are in need
of nutritional aid.
Five people have also
been reported to have
perished as a result of the
prolonged dry conditions.
Mark Bowden - Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, United Nations (M):
Somalia looks as if
it's going into another
period of drought.
The La Niña conditions
that have been forecast
in 2011 practically
guarantee a hard dry
season, which, again,
given climate variability
in Somalia may also be
followed by flooding.
VOICE:
In neighboring Kenya,
more than 150,000 people
have been declared
vulnerable to starvation
since crops failed
and drought set in,
while several children
in Ethiopia
have been admitted
to the hospital due to
severe malnutrition.
Meanwhile, locals
have been skipping
a meal a day and
struggling to pay for
trucked water or seeking
unsafe drinking water
in shallow wells.
The situation in countries
like Somalia is also often
exacerbated because of
certain regions where
humanitarian aid
organizations have been
forbidden from operating.
Mark Bowden (M):
The difficulties that
we do face are in terms
of getting food assistance
to all the population
in Somalia.
We're trying to address
that in Somalia
by putting a greater
emphasis on meeting
health, water and
sanitation needs as well
as provide support
for the nutritional needs
of children.
VOICE:
We are grateful for the
efforts of Mr. Bowden
and the United Nations
to respond
to the desperate needs
of the Somali people.
Our prayers that
with Heaven's grace
and humanity's choice
of balanced living,
such extreme situations
will be eased
for all beings on Earth.
In an October 2009
videoconference
in Formosa (Taiwan),
Supreme Master Ching Hai
expressed
her heartfelt concern
for the drought-afflicted
worldwide, urging
for mitigating actions
on everyone's part.
People are dying
from droughts, people are
leaving their villages,
their hometowns
because they don't have
any more water to drink.
Some die on the road
because of starvation;
some die on the road
looking for water.
This is very, very tragic.
I hope we all wake up
and wake up quick
to save our people,
to save our home.
Because many of
our world co-citizens
are not aware that many
of our other co-citizens
are dying because of
lack of water,
and lack of water
means lack of food,
lack of security.
We must
conserve the water;
we must do everything
we can.
And the first step to begin
is to be vegan.
Because animal industry
uses 70 more percent
of the clean water
of our planet!
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