How can Colombo’s recovery from Cyclone Ditwah be transformative?
As the water recedes and people start cleaning their homes, salvaging what they can and going back to work, the gaps and cracks in Sri Lanka’s social protection system are extremely evident among Colombo’s working class poor communities. So much of their bad experience over the past week due to Cyclone Ditwah and the floods could have been avoided had there been proper disaster management systems in place. But how their recovery, and the rest of the country’s, from this shock is managed in the short term and long term, will be the true test of the Government’s commitment to equitable recovery. This would not be possible unless those making decisions do so with care and empathy, without only considering fiscal constraints, and prioritise economic, social and climate justice over financial frameworks – and certainly not without women, civil society, communities themselves having a place in decision making.
While the new National Social Protection Strategy of Sri Lanka has made some progressive shifts by going beyond economic protection and addresses structural and systemic shifts that need to be made, the proof will be in actual implementation. National budget allocations for 2026 still do not reflect this shift, and the changes remain on paper. Some 85 per cent of Sri Lanka’s revenue will go to debt servicing in 2026 – and this was before the Cyclone Ditwah recovery figures. This means that financing broad-based social protection, beyond cash transfer programmes may not be a priority for a long time given the IMF programme demands as well.
But what the realities of Colombo’s working class poor shows is that recovery – whether economic, disaster or even climate – will not be just or equitable if we fail to account for the different ways in which people can be vulnerable or precarious. Unless we provide a constellation of social protection for Sri Lankans, we will only be meeting immediate needs of some while the short and long term recovery will be left to the people themselves.
How plans and policies operationalise on the ground are never the same across the country, and this is where smart policy making and understanding of vulnerability is key. Below are three key considerations and lessons for the future from the Cyclone Ditwah recovery process, specifically for Colombo city:
1. We need better planning, with better data, and better understanding of
vulnerable communities in Colombo.
On Friday November 28, in Colombo, when it was clear that people would have to be relocated to shelters and camps in the days to come some of the key questions we were asking were – The shelters – the camps, the schools, the community centres – did they know how many people were expected? Were there enough sleeping spaces, toilets, preparations for meals? Did they know how many children, persons with disabilities, age disaggregation, non-communicable diseases that might need medication? Did the toilets have locks on doors and functioning bulbs? Were there enough hand sanitiser and bins for sanitary pads? What about people’s pets? Given the lack of preparation and overall horizontal working relationships between state institutions – linking different kinds of data with disaster preparedness is still in the works. When it does operationalise someday, it must go down to the extent of a checklist that checks on the door locks and hand sanitiser at shelters so that people impacted can stay there with dignity and safety. This kind of planning at a micro level also enables support and aid to be directed properly based on needs and minimise wastage.
2. Narrowly-focused and targeted social welfare transfers are grossly insufficient at this time.
On Wednesday December 2 morning in North Colombo when the water had finally receded and people were able to go back home, the conversation was about the Rs. 25,000 that the government had pledged for flood-affected families. People had been informed that only those who had gone to shelters would be eligible for this support. Community leaders had disagreed with this decision and stated that the support should be universal and given to everyone, including renters. Many people were unable to leave their homes and go to the shelters, even with over four feet of water as they had pets or other reasons – including the fear that their assets like electronic items would be stolen. Some had not gone to shelters as the water level inside their homes had been manageable, while some did not have water go into the house at all. But they were unable to go to work and were struggling to buy even small provisions to cook. Many of them do not receive Aswesuma.
The nationally representative BRIGHT 2024-25 survey launched last week shows that urban households show the lowest levels of coverage, with only 34 – 44 per cent of poor or food-insecure households receiving Aswesuma benefits. There is solid evidence-based research that challenges longstanding assumptions about the cost of universality, and whether it is actually affordable in low and middle income countries, despite what the World Bank and IMF may say about fiscal constraints as they steer countries into more targeted social security systems.
3. Housing for the sake of providing people housing away from flood prone areas will only set up people to fail.
While we appreciate the commitments by the government to provide safe housing or land for those living in unsafe areas that are frequently subject to floods and landslides, without proper attention to the importance of location and the actual design of the houses, in the long term relocated communities will be negatively impacted. The tsunami housing was the perfect example of this – where fisher communities were relocated deep inland away from the sea or right here in Colombo, where since 2012 the Urban Development Authority’s high-rise complexes for low-income communities have been a complete failure in uplifting the lives of those relocated, and in fact made their lives much worse. Physical structures do not make homes – locations, communities, a built environment that connects with those who inhabit those spaces do. A report by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) last month reinforced the message that forced evictions make people more vulnerable and undermine their ability to adapt to climate change – even when climate change is used as a justification for the evictions.
In the immediacy of any disaster we see the outpouring support from Sri Lankans – coming together to raise money, collect rations and clothes and deliver them where needed. But to break this cycle of stepping in where the state and government fail, we need proactive governance and planning, and not reactive as we have been for decades. Whether we repeat the mistakes of the past or use this time to build back differently is yet to be seen.
(The writer is the founder and director of Colombo Urban Lab at the Centre for a Smart Future (CSF) which is an interdisciplinary public policy think-tank in Sri Lanka).
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