Sri Lanka must urgently strengthen its infrastructure and disaster-preparedness systems to withstand increasingly severe climate events, a senior United Nations official said, describing the recent flooding as unlike anything she has seen in the country.
Kanni Wignaraja, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the UN Development Programme’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, told NHK in an interview from Sri Lanka that the scale of destruction was “devastating,” with heavy loss of life and widespread damage to critical infrastructure.
She said insufficient preparedness contributed to the severity of the disaster, noting that flood-management systems and public infrastructure must be built “with materials and with design and technology that can withstand much harsher climate action.”
Wignaraja also highlighted a growing financial challenge, warning that official development assistance has declined in recent years as donor governments scale back foreign aid.
She said the reduction limits the ability of vulnerable countries to invest in resilient infrastructure.
Strengthening regional cooperation will be essential to address inequalities and reinforce public goods at both local and global levels, Wignaraja added, stressing that communities across Asia face shared risks from intensifying climate-related disasters.
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