Construction has begun on 4,918 new houses for families whose homes were completely destroyed by Cyclone Ditwah, the Ministry of Defence says.
Senior Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of Defence Prageeth Danansooriya told NewsFirst that compensation payments have also begun for 50,554 houses that were partially damaged by the cyclone.
The first national figures in months
The two numbers are the clearest national totals the Defence Ministry has given for Ditwah housing since the recovery programme began. Most previous figures reported in Sri Lanka have been district-level: a parliamentary answer in May put damage in the Kandy District alone at 1,660 houses completely destroyed and 11,352 partially damaged, from 6,119 affected families across all 20 Divisional Secretariat divisions in that district.
Danansooriya did not give a completion date for the 4,918 units, name the districts they are being built in, or say how much of the partial-damage compensation has actually reached households.
A programme repeatedly behind schedule
The rehousing effort has slipped against its own deadlines more than once. Families in Nuwara Eliya were still in temporary housing in early August, and the Cabinet extended the rental allowance for displaced families in July rather than moving them into permanent homes. In Badulla, compensation for 248 families was released only in late August.
Funding has come from several directions. The Asian Development Bank approved USD 200 million for post-Ditwah reconstruction, India extended a USD 350 million credit line, and China committed RMB 79 million to rebuild 14 bridges earlier this week.
No other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own account of the Defence Ministry’s figures as of Friday morning. The Daily Mirror and Ada Derana breaking listings carried no equivalent item.
