New York - The Marshall Islands said Friday electrical power
in the small Pacific nation may be switched off in September when its
fuel supplies are expected to run out, as high food and energy prices
have begun to hit hard some developing countries, particularly small
islands isolated from the rest of the world.
'Unless urgent international action is taken, the Marshall Islands
will exhaust its present fuel supplies this September,' said Rina
Targo, a representative of the islands at the United Nations. 'This
is a dire situation in which we may be left without electricity for
the foreseeable future.'
The islands' president, Litokwa Tomeing, declared on July 3 a
state of emergency because of rising food and fuel prices and ordered
conservation measures, she said.
Targo said one measure called for 'fast-tracking domestic
agricultural projects to reduce heavy dependance upon imported food.'
The Philippines have also been hard struck by the rising world
food prices. The country recently signed a bilateral agreement with
the United States for 216.5 million dollars in food security, and the
World Bank has said the Philippines would be eligible for some of the
its global food programme funds estimated at 1.2 billion dollars.
Government representatives from those countries were among those
meeting in the UN General Assembly Friday to discuss problems arising
from the high food and energy prices. The 192-nation body has
prepared a comprehensive review of the global situation and called
for steps, particularly from rich countries to help poor ones.
The session was opened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who
said malnutrition had already killed thousands of children around the
world before the current food and energy crisis. The UN had reported
every year that up to 800 million people worldwide go to sleep hungry
every night.
'And now, with energy costs soaring and the price of food
increasing by more than 50 per cent in the past year alone, the
problem is certain to worsen, potentially pushing an additional 100
million people into hunger and poverty,' Ban said.
He said the 'double jeopardy' of high food and fuel prices
threaten to undermine the UN programmes known as Millennium
Development Goals, one of which is to eradicate poverty and hunger by
2015.
Ban had called on the world's group of eight most industrialized
nations (G8) assembled in Japan July 8-10 to triple their assistance
to agricultural developments in poor countries, saying that the food
and energy crisis requires long-term attention from rich governments
and international donors.
Japan's UN Ambassador Yukio Takasu told the assembly meeting that
the G8 leaders in Japan renewed their commitment to deal with the
food crisis and had already pledged 10 billion dollars.
Japan alone has committed 1.1 billion dollars of food and
agricultural assistance to developing countries this year, Takasu
said.
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