The government will never use the destruction caused by Cyclone Ditwah as an excuse to reverse or halt its official programs, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has stated.

The President made these remarks while participating in the inauguration ceremony of the national program “Rebuilding Sri Lanka”, which has been established to efficiently oversee the country’s reconstruction efforts.

The President emphasized that although the country, which was already recovering from economic crises, had to face the cyclone, there was no need for the government to retreat or abandon its planned programs.

“We are committed to confronting this disaster without discarding the policy framework we have already prepared,” the President said.

“We could have used this disaster as an opportunity to postpone or reverse many things if necessary. That is what history shows. For 30 years, all destruction was justified by war. Similarly, we could have used certain pandemic conditions as a cover for this disaster. But we made a decision not to use this event to reverse or halt our programs.”

President Dissanayake noted that the cyclone rendered 700,000 people homeless, destroyed around 6,000 houses and caused partial damage to approximately 110,000 homes. Additionally, about 10,000 houses, although not damaged, were identified as unsafe, and their residents were instructed to evacuate.

The President emphasized that he is accountable to the mandate given to the present administration and will not allow any influence to undermine that mandate. A supplementary estimate of Rs. 500 billion has been approved by Parliament specifically to address the disaster.

Of this, Rs. 5,000 million has been allocated from the budget to rebuild 2,500 destroyed houses, and it is expected that over 50,000 houses will be constructed by 2026.