Lubango – A total of 168 vulnerable families affected by the drought in the town of Pinguelo, municipality of Gambos, Huíla Province, benefited this Tuesday from basic food baskets donated by the Ministry of the Environment.
The town is 35 km from the headquarters, has an estimated population of 4,443 inhabitants, and is one of the most affected by the severe drought in the Gambos region, along with Tchico, Taka, Tchitongo Tongo and Tchipeio.
The donation includes rice, sugar, cooking oil, cornmeal, beans, soap, and is included on the action part of the celebrations of June 17th, World Day to Combat Desertification, whose central event took place in Lubango, under the motto “United for the Earth, Our Legacy, Our future".
On the occasion, the representative of the village of Panguelo, Feliciano Matewa, thanked the Ministry of the Environment for the gesture, which “will reduce the difficulties for a few days”, as the area is ravaged by drought and even some families intend to go to Namibia, from where they were repatriated very recently.
Starvation risk in Gambos
In turn, the Gambos municipal administrator, Francisco Barros Leonardo, highlighted that at that time the municipality had a record of 20,000 vulnerable families in Taka, Tchitongotongo, Tongo, Tchipeio, Vitchaviva.
He stated that these numbers represent close to 30% of the municipality's population that will be affected by the food crisis if there is no specific intervention.
He considered the support from the Ministry of the Environment to be “opportune”, taking into account that there are still vulnerable populations in need of this type of help.
“We had rains in the previous agricultural season, many families managed to harvest some products, but that was not enough for all”, he highlighted.
The national director of the Environment, Sandra Nascimento, considered the help as a one-off, stressing, however, that the Executive defends the communities' self-sufficiency.
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