SL holds crisis cabinet meeting as 22 of 25 districts declared ‘disaster zones’

Colombo: Sri Lanka on Wednesday declared 22 of the country’s 25 administrative districts as ‘disaster zones’ even as a special cabinet meeting approved supplementary expenditure estimates for recovery work in the aftermath of Ditwah. At least 474 deaths and 356 persons went missing as landslides, floods and heavy rains due to the powerful Cyclone Ditwah last week.

As the island nation continues to pick up pieces, the special cabinet meeting, headed by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, was crucial for the handling of the recovery process in the Ditwah aftermath, officials said here.

Leader of the House and senior minister Bimal Rathnayake told Parliament that the special cabinet meeting approved the supplementary estimates for expenditure for disaster recovery work to give people relief from this unexpected disaster.

It will be referred to Parliament’s committee on public finance for approval, he said.

He, however, gave no other details. Earlier in the day, the government named 22 of the country’s 25 administrative districts as disaster zones under an extraordinary gazette under the Registration of Deaths Act of 2010.

“All districts other than the three southern districts are included (in the notification). This was done in view of the large number of deaths reported and the number of disappearances recorded so far in the Ditwah devastation,” the officials added.

As of Wednesday, over 1.4 million people have been affected, with more than 2,33,000 sheltering in 1,441 relief centres, the government data said. ri Lanka’s total economic loss from Cyclone Ditwah is estimated to be between USD 6 billion and 7 billion, which is roughly 3-5 per cent of the island

nation’s GDP, Prabath Chandrakirthi, Commissioner General of Essential Services, told reporters here.