Sri Lanka is suffering a series of floods and landslides brought upon by Cyclone Ditwah this past November. Climate experts believethe intensity of seasonal storms, which also recently devastated Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, are likely to have been “supercharged” by rising sea temperatures.
Sri Lankan authorities and civil society organizations are now struggling to bring relief to millions of affected people. About 20 percent of the island’s land was exposed to flooding, according to United Nations estimates, and there have been approximately 1,200 landslides in the interior, damaging homes and infrastructure and destroying crops. International donors have pledged assistance in response to the government’s appeal, but they should also provide direct support to affected communities and civil society groups assisting them.
The UN Development Programme found that the majority of those affected belong to communities already “facing multiple vulnerabilities … including unstable income, high debt, and a limited capacity to cope with disasters.” For instance, the Malaiyaha Tamil community concentrated in Sri Lanka’s central highlands have long been victims of discrimination and neglect that has left them without adequate access to basic services and infrastructure even in normal times.
The districts of Puttalam, Mullaitivu, Batticaloa, Kilinochchi, and Ampara all have severely affected marginalized populations. While Tamil is widely spoken in these areas, official warnings were not made in the Tamil language as the storm neared.
As in previous environmental disasters, Sri Lankan civil society organizations have played a vital role in the response. But instead of facilitating these groups’ valuable work, successive governments have treated them as a threat, subjecting them to repressive regulations under the Ministry of Public Security that include invasive and onerous reporting requirements, strong penalties for small lapses in paperwork, and obstacles to receiving funds.
The government has declared a state of emergency, but the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has expressed concern that the emergency regulations, modelled on those used by previous governments, contain draconian provisions incompatible with rights.
Sri Lankan authorities are working hard to provide relief and rehabilitation. They should recognize that social vulnerabilities compounded the storm’s damage in many affected communities and take steps toward meaningful redress. The government should support and empower civil society organizations instead of treating them with suspicion.
