Sri Lanka issues fresh landslide warnings – World
COLOMBO: As Sri Lanka issued a new landslide warning for the worst-hit central hills on Friday and confirmed that the Cyclone Ditwah death toll has risen to 607, authorities in Asia feared further misery as more rain looms, with floods having already killed over 1,750 people across five countries.
While Indonesia has borne the brunt of the regional disaster with 867 confirmed deaths, Sri Lanka’s National Building Research Organisation issued urgent alerts regarding the stability of mountain slopes.
The NBRO said heavy rainfall could further saturate the hills, making them highly unstable following the deluge brought on by the onset of monsoon rains.
“Since rainfall within the past 24 hours has exceeded 150 millimetres, if the rains continue, evacuate to a safe location to avoid the risk of landslides,” the NBRO said in a statement.
Friday’s new landslide alert covered areas not previously identified as high risk. Residents evacuated from the landslide-prone central hills were told not to return immediately to their homes, even if their specific properties appeared unaffected by the slips.
The Disaster Management Centre reported that 607 people had been confirmed dead in Sri Lanka, with many of those previously unaccounted for now presumed killed in devastating mudslides.
The number of missing was revised down from 341 to 214, while the number of people affected rose to just over 2 million. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has described the event as the most challenging natural disaster in the history of the island.
Dissanayake addressed parliament on Friday, announcing a strategic shift in the country’s economic recovery plan. He said he had asked the International Monetary Fund to delay the release of the sixth instalment of a $2.9 billion bailout loan to negotiate a larger payout due to the catastrophe.
“The IMF board was to sign off on releasing $347 million on December 15, but we have now asked them to put it off because we want time to negotiate a bigger instalment,” Mr Dissanayake said.
He noted that fresh talks with the Washington-based lender were essential because the country’s economic situation had drastically changed following the disaster.
The top official in charge of the recovery, Commissioner-General of Essential Services Prabath Chandrakeerthi, estimated reconstruction costs at between $6 billion and $7 billion.
In the central town of Gampola, residents worked to clear mud and repair extensive water damage. The military deployed thousands of troops to assist, but the scale of destruction required community mobilisation.
Tourism authorities noted that hotels were back in business, and the tourism ministry reported that nearly 300 tourists stranded by the disaster had been rescued by helicopter. Deputy Tourism Minister Ruwan Ranasinghe said tourism revenues are vital to help the nation rebuild.
Devastation across regions
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, authorities warned that Aceh province could see very heavy rain through Saturday, with North and West Sumatra also at risk. The disaster has killed 867 people there, with 521 still missing. More than 800,000 people have been displaced in Aceh province alone.
Aid organisations said access to remote areas remained blocked, with roads and bridges cut off. Ade Soekadis, executive director of Mercy Corps Indonesia, described the scale of the impact as extraordinary.
“The scale is extraordinary, with hundreds, possibly thousands, of villages in 50 districts affected,” Soekadis said, noting that the affected area across three provinces in Sumatra was larger than the country of Bangladesh.
Now sheltering in a school, the government contractor said recovering from the flood’s impact could take more than a year. Hendra Vramenia, 37, fled his village in Kampung Dalam in southeastern Aceh and feared that people in remote areas now risked starvation.
“This is a calamity we must face,” Vramenia said.
The environmental crisis extended beyond Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Thailand reported 276 deaths and Malaysia reported two. State media in Vietnam reported at least two people were killed after heavy rains triggered more than a dozen landslides.
The latest downpour prompted Vietnamese authorities on Friday to label 2025 as “the year with the most unusual natural disasters in history”.
Environmentalists and the Indonesian government have pointed to forest loss as a significant factor in the flash flooding and landslides. Indonesia is among the countries with the largest annual forest loss due to mining, plantations, and fires.
The government in Jakarta said on Wednesday it was revoking the environmental permits of several companies suspected of worsening the disaster’s impact and had launched a probe.
Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq said if evidence showed corporate involvement in illegal logging or land clearing aggravated the disaster, investigations could escalate to criminal prosecution.
While seasonal monsoons bring rainfall that farmers depend on across Asia, climate change is making the phenomenon more erratic and unpredictable throughout the region.
Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2025
