Sri Lanka has told the United Nations desertification summit in Mongolia that countries need to build drought resilience before dry conditions harden into a crisis, and has asked for more international support for developing states trying to do so.
Environment Minister Dr. Dammika Patabendi made the call on Tuesday during a High-Level Ministerial Dialogue on “Water and Drought Resilience” at UNCCD COP17 in Ulaanbaatar, the Daily Mirror reported.
What the minister asked for
Patabendi said climate change is raising the need for countries to strengthen long-term preparedness and resilience “rather than responding only after droughts have become severe.”
Developing countries, he said, need better access to climate information, early-warning systems, technology and capacity development — and adequate, predictable financial resources — if they are to prepare for rising drought risk. The word “predictable” carries weight in these negotiations: recurring complaints from developing-country delegations concern pledges that arrive late, arrive short, or arrive as loans.
He reiterated Sri Lanka’s commitment to land degradation neutrality, sustainable land management and drought resilience through what he described as a people-centred and collaborative approach.
What Sri Lanka put on the table
The minister pointed to domestic programmes linking land, water, climate and biodiversity: the restoration of traditional tank villages, the “Vanaspathi” national forest conservation programme, and wetland protection.
The tank village reference is the oldest instrument in that list. Sri Lanka’s cascading village tank systems, built to capture and stage monsoon runoff across the dry zone, are a centuries-old drought defence that has degraded through siltation and neglect — and one the country can credibly present at a summit about restoring land.
Patabendi said Sri Lanka is willing to work with the UNCCD, regional partners and the wider international community on land restoration, water security and drought resilience.
The domestic backdrop
The minister is making the case abroad while the argument is being tested at home. Sri Lanka is in what the Meteorology Department has called the strongest El Niño in 75 years. Last week the government released Rs. 3 billion in insurance compensation for farmers in five districts, with roughly 8,000 acres damaged and nearly 7,000 farmers affected — spending that follows the damage rather than preventing it, which is precisely the pattern Patabendi described to the dialogue.
COP17, the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, runs in Ulaanbaatar from August 17 to 28 under the theme “Restoring Land. Restoring Hope.” The convention has 197 parties.
The Daily Mirror report did not say whether Sri Lanka has attached a figure to what it is seeking, or named which financing mechanisms it wants strengthened. As of Wednesday morning, no other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own report of the minister’s remarks.
