( CNN ) -- Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has declared a state of national calamity because so many citizens do not have food or proper nutrition . Sisters Vidalia , left , and Maribel Agustin , who suffer from malnutrition , sit at a shelter in Guatemala in August . Speaking in a nationally televised address late Tuesday , Colom said his declaration will make it easier to get food to the thousands of Guatemalan families who are in dire need . `` This will help us access resources from the international community that are generously offered for this type of situation and to mobilize national resources more rapidly , '' he said . The United Nations ' World Food Programme says Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world and the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean . Chronic undernutrition affects about half of the nation 's children under the age of 5 , the U.N. agency said . Colom said the nation 's food problems are the result of a drought this year , global warming and the effects of the international economic crisis . He also cited the Central American nation 's `` history of unfairness that has made Guatemala live since long ago with high and shameful poverty levels , extreme poverty and undernutrition . '' According to the World Bank , about 75 percent of Guatemalans live below the poverty level , which is defined as an income that is not sufficient to purchase a basic basket of goods and basic services . Almost 58 percent of the population have incomes below the extreme poverty line , which is defined as the amount needed to purchase a basic basket of food . `` This is the cause of the food and nutritional crisis that this country is going through , '' Colom said . `` There is food . What we do n't have are the financial means so that those who are affected can buy the available food . ... Let 's not wait until we have a famine to act . '' Poverty is more pronounced among indigenous populations and those who live in rural areas . In the nation 's highlands , where many indigenous people live , seven of 10 children under age 5 are malnourished , the World Food Programme says . About 40 percent of the nation 's more than 13.2 million citizens are indigenous Mayans , according to the CIA World Fact Book .
Declaration will make it easier to get food to those in need , he says . President Carlos Colom says Guatemala welcomes aid from international organizations . Guatemala has highest rate of malnutrition in Latin America , he says . Guatemala blames food problems on drought , global warming , economic crisis .