ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka will re-build better and stronger in the recovery from Cyclone Ditwah, Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning, Anil Jayantha Fernando said as the island recovers from the worst natural disater in over two decades that has left more than 800 people dead of missing.
“We will re-build better and stronger,” Minister Jayantha said. “When we reconstruct, we have to make soemthing that is better than what it was.”
Sri Lanka is giving 5 million rupees to people who have completely lost their houses regardless of the original size of the house.
Cyclone Ditwah as an unusual weather system that developed very close to Sri Lanka and then moved up the island very slowly, dumping large volumes of water on practically all areas of the island, though wind speeds were low.
Most cyclones move across the very fast, usually overnight degrading as they move. Only two out of 16 cyclones that made landfall has moved in a South-North direction.
The weather system initially confounded meterologist who found it difficult to predict the path with different weather models giving different results.
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The sustained rainfalls over more than two days as the Cyclone moved slowly up the island, hugging the coast drawing moisture from the sea triggered 1,200 landslides and deadly debris flows which moved like mud tsunamis across five kilometres at times.
Sri Lanka’s Road Development Authority has indicated on a back-of-the envelop calculation that it may take 190 billion rupees to re-build broken roads and bridges, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told parliament.
RDA Director General K Kandamby has said that reconstruction will include slope strengthening.
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Sri Lanka’s RDA roads in the hill country have seen a large number of rock falls, some from recent cut slopes with road itself being intact. Strengthened slopes have survived.
Social media vlogs show that RDA roads with roads with concrete drains and culverts which took water out from under the highways, have withstood strong water flows.
However, hundreds of smaller roads under local authorities in the hill country also have to be repaired.
The rail network, which dates from the colonial period has been severely damaged in some locations with earth being undermined from the track by earth flows.
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India has indicated that Sri Lanka will be helped with re-building the Northern track, General Manager of Railways, Ravindra Padmapriya said.
The northern track is the most advanced track in the island build by India’s IRCON with minutely set elevations, which can carry trains up to 100 kilometres an hour.
Sri Lanka is moving a 500 billion rupee supplementary estimate to next year’s budget, Minister Fernando said.
A Global Rapid Post-Disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE) assessment will soon provide a more detailed assessment of reconstruction needs, he said.
Meanwhile, the World Bank said it will provide 120 million dollars by re-purposing emergency components of existing loans.
World Bank said it will help Sri Lanka mobilize additional funds.
The International Monetary Fund has said it will provide 200 million dollars from fast disbursement facility.
Sri Lanka however has a high private savings rate, but has suffered currency depreciation and high inflation from flawed operating frameworks, forcing foreign borrowings and eventual external default.
The central bank has provided monetary stability in 2024 and also 2025 by failing to push up inflation allowing budget to improve and foreign debt to be repaid.
However currency depreciation in 2025 from selective denial of convertibility after over-purchasing dollars above its deflationary policy has raised concerns.
Sri Lanka’s Treasury does not buy dollars in the market and its dollar revenue streams also blocked by a ‘Government Acceptance’ priviledge given to the central bank, analysts have pointed out, making the country vulnerable to a second default if the central bank does not conduct sufficient deflationary policy. (Colombo/Dec16/2025)