This is due to the fact that there are not sufficient private transporters operating in the Soddo area. Some of the NGOs who still have some short haul transport capacity are lending trucks to minimize the logistical problems. The Logistics and Transport Coordination Department of the central DPPC has echoed the call for four wheel drive vehicles to assist in the transport operation. Wereda DPP Committees also complained that because they are not receiving enough food to provide to the needy, they are forced to split the total number of people in need in half, and to distribute rations on an alternating basis. Beneficiaries therefore are receiving full rations only once every two months.
Reports indicate that the food shortage is increasing in severity.
The latest report from SCF UK Nutritional Surveillance Programme indicates a general decline in nutritional status. Currently, a team of Regional DPPB experts are in the field to monitor the changing situation concerning the most vulnerable groups of people who are in need of food assistance in all weredas in the zone. They are expected to formulate new beneficiary figures as the situation dictates. It should be noted that there is a standing agreement between state farms in the country and the seven Wolayita wereda councils to recruit agricultural labourers in response to the request which comes from the state farms during the peak labour season. However according to informal information sources who have assessed labour migration to the state farms, the number of workers from Wolayita has dropped this year.