UNESCO is pursuing an integrated recovery plan aligned with Sri Lanka’s national priorities in response to Cyclone Ditwah which left a major humanitarian crisis in its wake – impacting more than 2.2 million people across 25 districts. The intervention focuses on stabilizing and restoring flood-damaged public records and archives, ensuring continuity in education systems, and strengthening resilience to mitigate the impact of future disasters.
Following a request from the Government of Sri Lanka, UNESCO’s Director-General confirmed a coordinated emergency assistance.
As part of the Heritage Emergency Fund, UNESCO is building the capacities within the Department of National Archives and providing specialized vacuum packing machines to handle and restore the damaged documentary heritage – an estimated 200,000 documents stored at the National Archives in Colombo and Kandy. UNESCO will also conduct the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) for public records and archives, and built heritage in the flood affected areas.
Building on its longstanding expertise in terms of protecting the continuity of learning, UNESCO will repair structural damages to restore safe learning environments in 63 affected pre-schools in the Colombo district, and provide temporary teaching arrangements, accommodation and care for students. Emergency rehabilitation will also support primary schools in isolated areas of Aranayake, Kegalle district.
UNESCO is also reinstating mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) into education systems in affected areas – impacting approximately 28,900 teachers and school principals.
Finally, UNESCO is reinforcing science-based disaster risk reduction and enhancing preparedness for future climate-related hazards. This will include the assessment of technical and institutional gaps in flood and reservoir operations, conducting targeted hydrological risk assessments in the Mahaweli, Kelani, Walawe, and Menik river basins, and strengthening the use of AI-assisted forecasting tools to improve flood early warning systems (FEWS).
read more: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-supports-response-and-recovery-planning-sri-lanka-post-cyclone-ditwah
