A senior United Nations official today told a meeting of African ministers that harnessing the continent's largely untapped water resources is critical in feeding and providing for its people, as delegates consider a multi-billion dollar, long-term irrigation and hydroelectricity program.

By a vote of 180 in favor to 1 against (United States) and no abstentions, the Committee approved a resolution on the right to food. The resolution "consider(s) it intolerable" that more than 6 million children still die every year from hunger-related illness before their fifth birthday, and that the number of undernourished people had grown to about 923 million worldwide, at the same time the planet could produce enough food to feed 12 billion people, or twice the world's present population.

The first six grants have been awarded by the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), totalling about $6.5m and covering over five countries, including Uganda, Cameroon, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Malawi. The estimated number of rural households expected to benefit from this round directly total 1,240,000.

A narrow hallway leads to a makeshift wooden counter where a shelf displays a few empty beer cans and soft drink bottles; a side door opens to a corridor with a series of bedrooms, almost all of them occupied. This is the 25 de Setembro Social Centre, one of the largest brothels in Chimoio, capital of Mozambique's central province of Manica.