In early December, Cyclone Ditwah drenched the island in relentless rain and tore through every district with winds nearing 90 kilometers per hour. As the storm subsided, it left behind a trail of destruction with over 600 dead, hundreds missing, and more than a million displaced. Homes, schools, and hospitals lay in ruins. Roads and railways were cut off. Emergency responders struggled to reach those trapped by floods and landslides. Ditwah’s destruction is a stark reminder of how climate change is transforming extreme weather into a recurring national threat, highlighting the fragility of Sri Lanka’s welfare systems.
That weakness is what Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) seeks to fix. The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) describes it as an approach that strengthens existing welfare systems so they can anticipate, absorb, and recover from large-scale shocks. Traditional welfare programmes were designed for predictable hardship, such as illness or unemployment. They struggle when entire communities are displaced at once, as seen during Cyclone Ditwah.
ASP seeks to overcome these shortcomings by linking welfare databases with disaster and climate information, so support can scale automatically when risk indicators rise. It relies on two tools: vertical expansion, which increases the size or duration of benefits, and horizontal expansion, which temporarily adds new recipients. For instance, when flood warnings are issued, these systems can activate before impact, transferring cash or food allowances directly to at-risk households.
After Cyclone Ditwah struck, the government authorised each Divisional Secretary to use up to Rs50 million for immediate relief. On the 5th of December, a broad relief package was announced. Families who lost homes received Rs50,000 for essential household items and a monthly rent support of Rs25,000 for up to six months. Additional grants covered rebuilding and repairs, with up to Rs5 million for new homes and Rs2.5 million for partial damages.
These measures brought help to those hardest hit, but were introduced only after the storm’s destruction. ASP aims to formalise this kind of flexibility by linking social registries, climate forecasts, and funding systems so assistance activates automatically when risk levels rise, not after losses occur.
Sri Lanka’s ability to withstand the next climate disaster will depend on how early its systems move. The next storm can’t be stopped, but we can prepare for it. Building stronger welfare systems and smarter coordination across public institutions offers a path to protect lives before the next disaster strikes.