The Hon. Eranga Weeraratne - Deputy Minister of Digital Economy

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, the “Ditva” cyclone that prevailed on 28–30 November caused severe damage to our country. Floods, landslides and property damage displaced many, and agricultural lands suffered extensive losses. Highways, railways, irrigation works, and large volumes of public property were damaged. However, to safeguard evacuees and meet essential needs, the Government, public institutions, officers, the Tri-Forces, private institutions, civil organizations, and the public worked together, around the clock, and we have been able to stabilize this disaster situation.

¶ 02 The disaster significantly impacted our telecommunications network. Due to landslides and inundation, several communication networks went down. Working jointly with the Ministry of Digital Economy, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, and telecom operators, we restored more than 90% of overall telephony operations by now. Provincial interconnectivity runs over fiber backbones. By the evening of 28 November, 11 main fiber segments had broken in multiple places due to landslides and flooding, isolating many provinces from Colombo core switches, which in turn disabled local networks. With relentless work and Tri-Forces support, most fiber links were reconnected within 24 hours, and all primary backbones are now restored. About five secondary links remain under restoration, and roughly 10% of services are pending full recovery.

¶ 03 Sri Lanka has 9,332 telecom towers serving 16,926 telecom sites. Around the 28th, over 4,000 sites were down. By yesterday, we reduced that to 1,248; today it stands at 1,066. More than 3,000 sites were brought back. Of the 1,066 still down, 809 are due to power outages. We expect, as the Minister of Power indicated, to restore these as quickly as possible. A further 236 sites await fiber backhaul restoration, and 21 are down for other reasons. The main challenge is safe access, as some sites remain submerged or in active landslide zones. We expect conditions to stabilize tomorrow so we can reach and restore more sites. Except Nuwara Eliya, all other major towns now have 70–75% of connectivity restored; Nuwara Eliya is at about 68%, and we anticipate exceeding 75% shortly.

¶ 04 In Ampara, Kandy, Mullaitivu, and Puttalam, around 70–75% connectivity is active; in other affected provinces, over 80% is active; nationally, including unaffected areas, more than 90% of telephony connectivity has been restored.

¶ 05 We are pleased to note that, at the Government’s request, all three telecom operators provided free top-up packages from the start of the disaster, including 200–300 minutes and about 1 GB of data, preventing disconnections when balances ran low. Starlink has agreed to provide free service in affected areas until the end of December.

¶ 06 We are now transitioning from immediate response to a recovery plan. Through the “Rebuilding Sri Lanka” programme, we aim for rapid and efficient action to bring the country back, stronger than before. With support from citizens at home and abroad, a dedicated committee is working transparently and effectively, in coordination with the Cabinet and public service. Thank you.