Who Gets Warned? Language, Discrimination, and Disaster Communication in Sri Lanka

In a recent article related to the devastating impact of Cyclone Ditwah on Sri Lanka, the Tamil Guardian noted that,

Officials describe the impact of  Cyclone Ditwah as one of the deadliest weather-related disasters in recent years. Yet even as Tamils in the North-East grapple with the impact of of the disaster, the Sri Lankan state has continued issuing almost all emergency communications exclusively in Sinhala or English, leaving Tamil-speaking regions without life-saving information. Even official warnings shared by ministries and the DMC at a press conference held at the Defence Ministry were issued without translation, with Tamil completely excluded and only occasional updates available in English.

Was what the Tamil Guardian highlighted true?

I studied 68 posts to the Disaster Management Centre’s official Facebook page posted from 25 November to 7.15am on 29 November. For starters, all the critical information featured on its banner page is only in Sinhala.

Of the 68 Facebook posts, just a dozen featured content, and vital updates in Tamil. When machine translation was used to study the updates, all of them were related to flooding or the high risk of flooding.

1. 2025-11-28 18:07: Residents in the Kolonnawa area are advised to evacuate immediately as the Ambatale Reservoir water level has risen, causing flood conditions.
2. 2025-11-28 18:04: Flood warning issued for the Kolonnawa area due to water release from the Ambatale Reservoir, urging residents to move to safety.
3. 2025-11-28 16:47: The Irrigation Department warns of flood risks in the low-lying areas of the Kelani River basin within 24 hours and advises evacuation.
4. 2025-11-28 16:37: Warning of flood dangers in the Kelani River valley within 24 hours, asking residents to stay vigilant and move to safe locations.
5. 2025-11-28 12:09: Major flood warning issued for the Kalu Ganga basin within 48 hours, affecting specific areas in Ratnapura and Kalutara districts.
6. 2025-11-28 12:08: Warning of major floods in the Kalu Ganga low-lying areas within 48 hours, advising residents and drivers in the area to remain vigilant.
7. 2025-11-28 10:02: Severe flood warning for the Kelani River valley within 48 hours, listing specific divisional secretariats including Kolonnawa and Kelaniya.
8. 2025-11-28 10:01: Severe flood warning issued for low-lying areas of the Kelani River valley within 48 hours, urging precautions to protect life and property.
9. 2025-11-27 22:11: High risk warning issued for the eastern coastal belt due to low pressure weather conditions.
10. 2025-11-27 01:15: Flood potential announced for low-lying Mahaweli River areas within 48 hours due to rainfall in reservoir catchment areas.
11. 2025-11-27 01:13: Flood warning for Mahaweli River low-lying areas within 48 hours following heavy rains, advising the public to contact the DMC for info.
12. 2025-11-26 15:54: Flood risk warning issued for the Gal Oya basin valid for the next 24 hours.

There was a significant disparity in both the frequency, and the granularity of life-saving, critical information provided in Sinhala vs. Tamil. While Sinhala Facebook updates by DMC posts covered a wide spectrum of disaster management, including specific road closures, and A/L exam logistics, the posts/updates in Tamil were exclusively around flooding.

What did Tamil speaking peoples lose out on?

1. Zero landslide warnings: While there were multiple detailed posts in Sinhala (and English) regarding National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) warnings, not a single post in Tamil details specific landslide risks. Sinhala posts explicitly list high-risk districts (e.g., Badulla, Kandy, Kegalle, Ratnapura) and specific divisional secretariats requiring evacuation (Level 3 warnings). Tamil speakers in these hill country areas, a demographic which is the most vulnerable to landslides arguably in the entire country, would not have received these specific evacuation instructions via the DMC’s official Facebook account.
2. Missing critical infrastructure and road closure updates: Sinhala posts provided near real-time updates on critical infrastructure failures, and road closures. The closure of the Pahala Kadugannawa section of the Colombo-Kandy road and the 18-hair pin bend road (Mahiyanganaya) were communicated in Sinhala with alternative routes provided. Tamil speakers traveling through or to these major logistics, and travel arteries would have been unaware of these closures, and the associated landslide risks.
3. Lack of education and logistical updates: The DMC’s Facebook posts featured specific Sinhala posts regarding the postponement of the A/L examinations due to the cyclone, including logistical support provided by the Air Force for transporting exam papers to Jaffna (Delft Island). Astonishingly, even this update was just in Sinhala, despite – as everyone in the country knows – Jaffna having a predominantly Tamil-speaking population.
4. Omission of specific river basin warnings (Deduru Oya): While Tamil posts covered the Kelani, Kalu, and Mahaweli rivers, they missed detailed warnings for other specific basins found in Sinhala posts. For instance, the Deduru Oya warnings, which included specific discharge rates (77,400 cubic feet per second) and lists of threatened Divisional Secretariats (e.g., Wariyapola, Nikaweratiya), were totally absent in Tamil. Residents in these specific downstream areas relying solely on Tamil would not have known the severity of the discharge.
5. Granularity of maritime and wind warnings: Sinhala posts included detailed weather forecasts regarding wind speeds (60-70 kmph) and specific instructions for the fishing and naval communities to refrain from venturing into deep and shallow sea areas. While there was one brief Tamil post mentioning a “high risk” for the eastern coast, it lacked the detailed safety instructions and the comprehensive island-wide weather context provided in the Sinhala updates.

The DMC’s official website has a selection for Tamil, but aside from page navigation, header, and footer text, everything else remains in Sinhala (or English). The screenshot above is actually from the supposed Tamil version of the website. The situation report on the 25th is a spreadsheet in E/S/T. Ditto with the one on the 26th. The very detailed situation reports on 27th, the spreadsheet on 28th, the very detailed sit-rep on the same day, another detailed sit-rep at 1800hrs on the same day, and another detailed sit-rep on the 29th at 6am were exclusively in Sinhala.

It gets worse with weather reports on the DMC’s official website. There are 34 reports on the site since 25 November.

• 29: 4 reports
• 28: 10 reports
• 27: 6 reports
• 26: 7 reports
• 25: 7 reports

I skimmed through all of them. Just one had content in Tamil. The rest were either exclusively in Sinhala or featured information in English (mirroring what was noted in Sinhala).

Yesterday, I studied 85 updates posted to the Meteorology Department’s official Facebook page (which is here). I studied them again for the use of Tamil in updates.

36 posts, of the 85 published, featured Tamil – which numerically, is much better than the DMC’s Facebook page updates. But the devil’s in the details. There was a clear discrepancy, and language discrimination in the dissemination of critical weather alerts. While routine data (temperatures, past rainfall) were generally posted in E/S/T simultaneously, urgent warnings regarding developing cyclones and severe weather were delayed or totally omitted in Tamil.

1. Total news/updates blackout on overnight Cyclone Ditwa updates: The intensification of the storm into Cyclone Ditwa between the night of November 27 and the morning of November 28 resulted in a significant information void in Tamil (or put more accurately, information asymmetry). In Sinhala, detailed warnings were issued at 8:26 PM (Nov 27), 11:19 PM (Nov 27), 2:02 AM (Nov 28), and 5:48 AM (Nov 28). These posts contained specific coordinates of the storm, its movement speed, and intensification status. However, in Tamil, the last warning regarding the storm was posted at 5:58 PM on November 27. Tamil speakers received zero updates during the critical 12-hour overnight window as the storm intensified and moved closer.
2. Significant delays for urgent, life-threatening hazards: When urgent warnings were eventually published in Tamil, they were extremely delayed – rendering moot the point of an early warning. On November 25, a “Warning for Heavy Rain” was posted in Sinhala at 3:51 PM. The corresponding Tamil warning was not posted until 6:41 PM, i.e., nearly 3 hours later – which given the volume of record breaking rainfall experienced in many parts of the island, could have been the difference of life, and death. Routine morning forecasts on November 25 were posted in Sinhala at 5:57 AM but in Tamil at 7:30 AM, a delay of over 90 minutes for commuters, and fishermen starting their day.
3. Omission of hazard, threat, and risk escalations: Posts in Sinhala alerted the Met Dept’s Facebook followers to granular updates as weather systems evolved from “Low Pressure” to “Depression” to “Deep Depression.” On November 27 at 1:00 PM, the Met Dept issued a specific “Warning for Deep Depression” in Sinhala (and English too). There is no corresponding Tamil post for this specific escalation in the Facebook posts over the period studied. Tamil speakers would have been unaware that the threat level had formally increased until much later, if ever.
4. Inconsistent forecasts: While Sinhala morning forecasts (General and Sea Area) appear consistently at around 5:30 AM to 6:15 AM, the Tamil updates are inconsistent, at best. On 27 November morning, detailed Sinhala weather forecasts were posted at 6:12 AM and 6:13 AM. There were zero corresponding Tamil forecast posts that morning. Tamil-speaking fishermen in littoral areas would were denied life-threatening information in the face of a rapidly developing storm event, and escalating severe weather.

In The digitalisation of discrimination: Sri Lanka’s e-NIC Project, and the perpetuation of exclusion penned earlier this year, I wrote about my experience at the Department for Registration of Persons and the National Transport Medical Institute in Nugegoda – where everything was printed, and conducted in Sinhala only. I wrote,

Fundamentally, digitalisation built upon discriminatory foundations will inevitably encode, amplify, and perpetuate those same biases through its design, implementation, and operation, making Dr [Hans] Wijayasuriya’s promises hollow, and potentially, actively deceptive. Without confronting and dismantling the systemic racism that permeates Sri Lankan public institutions – from language policies to staffing practices to service delivery protocols – any digital infrastructure, regardless of its technical sophistication or security features, will simply create a more efficient system of exclusion, digitising discrimination rather than democratising access.

The DMC’s Facebook page, official website, and the Meteorology Department’s Facebook page all functioned precisely as intended: digital platforms encoding, and amplifying the anti-Tamil discrimination embedded in Sri Lankan state institutions. What the study of life-saving, critical information updates during Cyclone Ditwah reveals is the architecture of a state that, even when lives are at risk (and with over 80 lost) cannot bring itself to communicate with Tamil citizens in their language, doesn’t see the need to do so, and carries on with total impunity even when called out.

Digitalisation, absent fundamental structural, and systemic reform, risks making discrimination faster, and deadlier in Sri Lanka.