EUROPE/ITALY - Hunger in the world: a third of the world’s population eats too little and over 600 million have no clean water

Monday, 21 June 2004

Rome (Fides Service) - Poverty means hunger. 1.3 billion (about one third of all the people on the planet) do not have enough to eat. According to the World Health Organisation 500 million of these eat less than 1500 calories per day which means they are hungry. It is estimated that 80% of the world population in the poorest conditions live in developing countries.
The human food requirement measured in calories varies according to age, weight, gender, health, climate, activity, metabolism, and feeding habits. Normally a person requires a minimum of 2,000 calories per day.
The effects of hunger, are weight loss, apathy, muscle weakness, depression of nervous system, less resistance to infections, early ageing, death from starvation. Children are among the main victims, suffering from swollen bellies, thinness, wrinkled skin, apathy etc. These people are also vulnerable to parasites and infective diseases caused not only by lack of food but also precarious sanitation (no clean water, no drains.). UNICEF estimates that the main cause of death of children under 5 is dehydration due to intestinal infections.
The main cause of hunger in the world is not insufficient food production, but rather the impossibility for poor people to buy food. Food prices are too high for average incomes in the third world. In advanced countries food shopping represents 20-25% of the family income, whereas in poor countries it represents up to 80% of the family income. Between 1970 and 1983 the world production of cereals, vegetables, tubers, meat etc., grew by 47%. Whereas the demographic growth in the same period in the world was 1.9% a year and in the third world 2.5%.
Thirst is no secondary problem. Recent research shows that in Africa about 75% of the rural population has no access to clean water; in Latin America 77%; in the Far East about il 70%. Altogether about 600 million people in the world are denied access to clean water. (AP) (21/6/2004 Agenzia Fides; Righe:33; Parole:379)


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