The United Nations is prepared to provide the assistance needed to carry out the government’s programme to resettle families who lost their homes to Cyclone Ditwah, UN Resident Coordinator Marc-André Franche said on Monday.
Franche met Chief of Staff to the President Prabath Chandrakeerthi at the Presidential Secretariat, in a meeting focused on the resettlement programme, Ada Derana reported, citing a statement from the President’s Media Division.
El Niño on the agenda
The discussion also covered the government’s plans for disasters that could arise under El Niño conditions. Chandrakeerthi briefed the Resident Coordinator on the state of the government’s preparedness and its response plans, the PMD said.
Franche said the UN was ready to help ensure both programmes are implemented successfully.
The same pair closed the emergency phase
The two officials are the same ones who formally wound up the UN’s Humanitarian Priorities Plan in June, the coordinated emergency response launched in December 2025 at the government’s request. That effort drew in 83 partner organisations, reached roughly 575,000 people and raised US$28.5 million against a US$35.3 million requirement.
Officials said at the time that closing the emergency phase did not end the recovery. Monday’s meeting is the visible continuation of that: from relief delivery to permanent rehousing.
Cyclone Ditwah affected all 25 districts in December 2025, with more than 2.2 million people affected at the peak and over 640 lives lost.
Two hazards at once
Pairing Ditwah resettlement with El Niño planning in a single meeting reflects the position the country is now in. The districts still carrying Ditwah’s housing damage are not the ones under the most acute current stress: it is the dry zone that is short of water, with more than 115,500 people affected by dry weather across seven districts, reservoir levels falling and forecasters expecting the rainfall deficit to persist through the rest of the year.
Franche has been active on both fronts, meeting Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa a day earlier on a separate matter.
Not reported
Ada Derana gives no figure for the number of families still to be resettled, no cost or timeline for the programme, and no indication of what form UN assistance would take — funding, technical support or agency delivery. It does not say whether any commitment was made, or what specific El Niño contingency plans were presented. No other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had reported the meeting at the time of writing.
