Report documents hunger across the Pacific - World Socialist Web Site
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Report documents hunger across the Pacific
By John Braddock
20 October 2016
In its State of the Environment Report for Oceania (2016), the Catholic aid agency Caritas has found widespread hunger across the Pacific in 2015–2016. The report, Hungry for Justice, Thirsty for Change, shows how extreme weather events combined with vast climatic changes are depleting food and water supplies throughout the region.
Released this month, the report documents cases of children eating cassava roots softened with paracetamol in Fiji and people in Papua New Guinea (PNG) suffering severe malnutrition during last summer’s drought. A powerful El Niño weather pattern contributed to food and water shortages affecting an estimated 4.7 million people across 13 Pacific countries, leading to widespread suffering and many deaths.