For subscribers

Commentary

Funding gap stretches wide at the scene of Sri Lanka’s cyclone tragedy

Vulnerable victims of climate disasters can’t depend on the charity of other nations but need a loss and damage fund to support them.

Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox

hssrilanka - Landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah toppled buildings and destroyed plantations still left their mark throughout the area, with mounds of upturned soil and broken pieces of concrete seen strewn by the wayside.
ST PHOTO: AZIM AZMAN

A three-storey house was obliterated by a landslide triggered by Cyclone Ditwah in November 2025 and took two lives.

ST PHOTO: AZIM AZMAN

Google Preferred Source badge

SRI LANKA - One of the clearest memories I have of my first disaster reporting trip to Sri Lanka last December is the image of a massive mound of dirt in the nation’s cyclone-stricken Badulla district.

The pile of debris, with concrete shards still buried in the soil, was all that remained of a three-storey house that had been obliterated by a landslide triggered by Cyclone Ditwah the previous month. I was later told that a mother and son died with the collapse of the house.

See more on