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ases of malnutrition among children under 5 years old in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) had claimed 20 lives this year as of July, according to data from the provincial health agency.

The agency also reported that as of July, at least 438 toddlers suffered from malnutrition.

The agency'€™s spokesperson, M Ismed Nuramadhani, said that the real figure for 2014 was higher because the agency had not yet finished verifying all the data from the province'€™s eight regencies and two municipalities.

'€œWe have just finished verifying this year'€™s data on malnutrition cases up to July,'€ Ismed told The Jakarta Post in Mataram on Monday.

He said updating the malnutrition data was slow because all the cases had to be verified to be certain they were malnutrition and not something else.

Agency data also showed there were 645 cases of malnutrition in 2013, 32 of which ended up in fatality. In 2012 there were 767 cases, 23 of whom died, while in 2011, there were 1,092 cases, 42 of whom died.

Ismed blamed the condition on poor parenting and a lack of nutrition for children.

'€œThe toddlers suffering from malnutrition do not automatically come from poor families. The cause is not just poverty,'€ he said.

Ismed also said that 40 percent of the cases that ended in fatality were because of accompanying diseases, such as tuberculosis, acute respiratory infections and hydrocephalus.

He said the health agency had an intensive program to deal with reported malnutrition cases in the province.

If the verification proves that a particular child is really suffering from malnutrition, then the agency will care for the child for three months.

If an accompanying disease is detected, then the disease will be treated first before dealing with the malnutrition.

'€œUp to present, it'€™s still difficult to differentiate whether it is malnutrition that triggers the emergence of an accompanying disease, or the accompanying disease that leads to malnutrition,'€ he said.

Malnutrition cases, he added, were handled first in community health centers (Puskesmas), then regency or city hospitals, the provincial hospital and even at Sanglah Hospital in Bali if the case was difficult to handle.

Ismed expressed concern that the extreme weather that had started to hit NTB in the middle of this year would lead to a water crisis, drought and harvest failure, thus increasing malnutrition in the province.

Data from the NTB Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) showed that prolonged drought in the province had caused at least 200 subdistricts in Lombok and Sumbawa to suffer a water crisis since August.

NTB BPBD head Wedha Magma Ardhi said the 200 subdistricts were spread across 10 regencies and cities.

The drought was expected to last until the end of November or early December, according to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Selaparang station at Lombok International Airport.

He said to help reduce the burden of those affected, the agency had distributed clean water, food aid and Rp100 million (US$8,268) cash to each of the affected regencies or cities.