Nearly a Year After Cyclone Ditwah, Tens of Thousands of Families Are Still Waiting to Be Paid

Cyclone Ditwah struck Sri Lanka on 27 November 2025. According to a Press Trust of India report carried by the Daily Pioneer, it affected more than three million people and killed more than 640. Kandy and the central hills were among the worst hit. In a few weeks, it will be one year since the disaster.

The government responded quickly with first-stage relief. A year on, the test is no longer the speed of emergency aid. It is whether families who lost homes have been able to rebuild, and whether the money allocated for that purpose has reached them. On the government’s own figures, the answer for tens of thousands of households is: not yet.

What Parliament was told

On 22 October, Deputy Minister of Defence Aruna Jayasekara answered a question in Parliament from Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa that had been asked a month earlier, on 23 September. The Sunday Times reported his figures on 25 October, based on data up to 16 September.

For partly damaged houses paid without a full assessment, 46,565 households had received a first payment of Rs. 300,000, while 11,286 were still waiting for it. For the second payment of Rs. 200,000, just 4,221 households had been paid and 53,629 were still waiting. In other words, more than nine in ten families selected for the second instalment had not received it.

For homes that were completely destroyed or are in high-risk areas, the Deputy Minister identified 32,147 houses. Families can choose to rebuild on their own land, build on state land, buy a house, or buy land and build. The payment figures for each option were low. Of 7,035 families identified for building on government land, 880 had been paid. Of 5,175 who chose to buy a house, 678 had been paid. Of 1,964 who chose to buy land and build, 208 had been paid. The reasons he gave included technical problems, pending approvals from the National Building Research Organisation, difficulty checking ownership, and irregularities in applications.

Deadlines that passed

These delays are not new. On 22 April, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake chaired a review at the Presidential Secretariat and instructed officials to pay the approved Rs. 500,000 for partly damaged houses to all eligible families before the end of May, except in exceptional cases, News 1st reported. The October figures show that deadline was not met for most families.

In July, the Daily Mirror visited families in the Nawalapitiya area. Households described being told their homes were unsafe but receiving only small sums, being asked for title deeds and lawyers’ letters before rental help, and being offered a state land valuation far below local market prices. A Kandy district official told the newspaper that thousands of NBRO landslide-risk reports were still pending, and the NBRO attributed delays to the scale of the damage and a shortage of staff. The Disaster Management Centre told the paper that relief distribution was handled by the Ministry of Defence, which did not respond.

Money released, money unspent

The problem is not simply a shortage of money. In August, Newswire and Hiru News reported Treasury figures, first published in the state newspaper Silumina, showing that Rs. 86.7 billion had been released between January and July 2026 for compensation and infrastructure, but only Rs. 26.4 billion had been spent. For resettlement, only Rs. 190 million of Rs. 1.05 billion had been used. The Ministry of Defence wrote to District Secretaries on 12 August telling them to speed up payments.

The International Monetary Fund has also flagged the issue. In its October staff-level statement, reported by the Daily FT, the IMF called for faster capital spending, including on Ditwah recovery. India’s High Commissioner and the Deputy Finance Minister agreed in May to speed up India’s US$450 million reconstruction package, according to PTI.

Families who insured their homes or businesses face a separate wait. Lanka News Web reported in October, citing Insurance Regulatory Commission data published by the Central Bank, that insurers had paid less than half of about Rs. 57 billion in Ditwah claims by the end of June.

Credit where due

The record is not all delay. The Sunday Times reported in April that more than 99 per cent of eligible households had received the Rs. 25,000 cleaning grant. The Ministry of Defence told News 1st in August that construction had started on 4,918 new houses for families whose homes were destroyed. Rebuilding safely in landslide country does require proper risk assessments, and a government that checks ownership is trying to prevent fraud. Those are legitimate reasons for care. They are not reasons for families to remain in temporary shelter a year later.

What the Budget should answer

The President presents the 2027 Budget on 12 November, two weeks before the anniversary. Reuters reported that the government plans public investment above 4 per cent of GDP next year, and the IMF has named Ditwah reconstruction among the capital projects that need to move faster. The Budget is therefore the natural place for the government to account for the year so far.

Three figures would tell the public most of what it needs to know. First, how much of the money released for Ditwah relief and reconstruction in 2026 has actually reached households, district by district. Second, how many families whose homes were destroyed have received all three instalments and moved into a permanent home. Third, how many NBRO risk assessments are still pending, and by when they will be finished. If the answers are good, publishing them costs the government nothing. If they are poor, the families waiting deserve to know, and Parliament deserves to debate them.