AKD turns to international partners for escape plan from climate shocks

Seeks support to build climate-resilient infrastructure

Warning that without urgent and collective action, the island will remain vulnerable to repeated climate-induced devastation, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has called on Sri Lanka’s international partners to help the country break free from what he described as a “climate trap,”   

In an interview with Newsweek’s Danish Manzoor Bhat, Editorial Director & Senior Vice President (Asia), the President said Sri Lanka faces “existential climate shocks” despite contributing only a negligible share to global carbon emissions.  

“We will be trapped if we don’t act now. This trap is not of our own making. Sri Lanka contributes negligibly to global emissions. But we face existential climate shocks that can destroy years of development progress overnight. We can’t have every flood, every cyclone, every drought set us back to where we started. So we urge our partners to help us build an escape plan to get out of the trap.”  

As such, the President urged support for the construction of climate-resilient infrastructure, emphasising that although such investments require higher upfront costs, they will prevent repeated reconstruction and long-term economic loss.  

“Help us build climate-resilient infrastructure. Help us diversify our economy away from climate-vulnerable sectors to sectors like the digital economy, IT services, light manufacturing and climate-resilient industries. 

Share technology so that communities have time to evacuate and protect assets before disasters strike. Help us build natural climate-change mitigation infrastructure, mangrove restoration, reforestation and wetland conservation.”   

Reflecting on the aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah, which he described as “catastrophic,” the President said the storm had left villages submerged, lives lost, and critical infrastructure destroyed. While praising the rapid mobilisation of the armed forces, police and local authorities and the swift support from international partners, he acknowledged that the disaster exposed longstanding weaknesses.  

“We need meaningful criticism to guide us,” he said. “Longstanding weaknesses were visible in local preparedness, land-use enforcement and speed of relief delivery. We are in government and we want to fix the problems.”  

President Dissanayake further said a comprehensive review of Sri Lanka’s disaster management systems is now underway, with strong emphasis on improving pre-monitoring and early-warning mechanisms, including real-time weather tracking and community-level alert systems.  

He said emergency operations centres have been established in every affected district, and all available military and police resources have been deployed for rescue and relief efforts. Coordination with international partners, he added, has strengthened the immediate response.  

Looking ahead, the President announced plans for the creation of a National Disaster Management Authority equipped with real authority and resources. Improvements in radar coverage, pre-positioning of rescue equipment in vulnerable zones, and detailed mapping of landslide-prone areas especially in the central highlands are also underway.  

“These districts have experienced landslides before,” he noted. “With climate change, destruction of this scale should have been expected in time. But for years and years Sri Lanka has failed to prepare adequately.”  

He pledged that his government would correct these failures with transparency and international cooperation.  

“At least now, our government will work with all partners to put effective, efficient and accountable systems in place,” he said. “We will rebuild Sri Lanka, better than it was before.”