Andrew Kathindi
Nutrition experts have warned that cases of malnutrition in the country could rise due to increased job losses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are food secure as a nation but household’s access to food is becoming a challenge as financial resources are not available due to the ongoing loss of income and employment,” said Senior UNAM Lecturer, Nutritionist and founding Nutrition and Food Security Alliance of Namibia (NAFSAN) Board Member, Charlotte Keyter.
She said the ongoing retrenchment and loss of income for those in the informal sector because of the COVID19 pandemic was impacting on the ability of households to buy nutritious food which is now classified as luxury, thus contributing to malnutrition in the country.
“COVID-19 has had a major impact worldwide but not because there isn’t enough food. Some countries are even dumping food because restaurants are closed and the food is spoiling. Loss of income means some people can’t provide food for their families. For some families, this is happening for the first time in their life and it will continue to impact them after the pandemic,” said Keyter.
She stressed that a balanced diet is even more important now during the pandemic than before as those who lack access to nutritious foods can become easily susceptible to contracting COVID19.
Keyter, who is not a registered medical practitioner, nonetheless urged people to be more continuous of the food they are currently consuming.
“People should check on the packaging of the food they purchase as some nutrients are removed from certain food products during processing, impacting on their ability to ingest certain nutrients. People should include more fish in their diet. People should use salt sparingly because salty food may compromise certain people’s immune system. This, in turn might cause other ailments and conditions that could put people at high risk of contracting viruses like COVID-19,” she said.
The UNAM lecturer also warned against imported foods produced using genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as some reports claim that they are dangerous and recommend that they should not be used for primary consumption.
Social Worker and Secretariat Director of NAFSAN, Ben Schernick said many people are food insecure and Namibia should increase its efforts to produce and distribute more food locally.
“In terms of food security as a nation, we believed that there is no shortage of food in the shops, but with job losses people can’t afford the food. Government has been working on some programs to get food to people and these initiatives should continue long after COVID-19. What the pandemic has done is opened our eyes to the inequality that is in the world,” he said.
Schernick said currently malnutrition among children is around 25 per cent and obesity among adults around 20 per cent in Namibia.
“This shows that there is a problem in the country’s nutrition in general and a lot of education is needed around this. Malnutrition has increased and it impacts brain development,” he said.
Schernick stressed that the long-term 20 or 30-year impact of the country’s national development should be considered as malnutrition impacts a country’s GDP because of its impact on brain development in children.
According to a UNICEF 2018 report 3,758 children were identified with severe malnutrition and enrolled for treatment, an increase of 2017’s annual report figure of 2,849 cases.
