As the waves creep closer to his home in Kankesanthurai, in Sri Lanka’s northernmost Jaffna Peninsula, 41- year-old Seelan Kandeepan recalls how the sea continuously consumes what was once a thriving shoreline. His family has lived in this coastal village for generations, but now they struggle daily with an ever-changing coastline.
“I’ve seen the ocean take away our land, little by little. The extent of land we had a decade ago has reduced. The water has turned saltier, and the well water is no longer fit for drinking and cultivation,” he says.
Kandeepan’s family and many others in the northern peninsula are facing worsening conditions, where rising temperatures, coastal erosion and increasing salinity are real. Besides erosion, saltwater intrusion is contaminating water sources.
Jaffna battles erosion and inundation
According to a 2020 study, Jaffna Peninsula’s reliance on groundwater is under strain, with rising salinity rendering 59 per cent of wells unfit for farming and drinking. Once-thriving agricultural lands are now disappearing, with 43 per cent of paddy fields abandoned as irrigation sources fail, the research suggests. Overextraction and weak barriers fuel saltwater intrusion, leaving many coastal wells increasingly saline.
“We spend a lot of money to buy drinking water. It is huge crisis,” says Karthiga, 44, a homestay owner in Jaffna’s sacred Nallur city. T.N. Sooriyarajah, the deputy director at Jaffna district’s disaster management unit adds that while people suffer from saltwater intrusion and coastal erosion, financial constraints are limiting the implementation of proposed disaster mitigation projects.
“In Maradangani division, one of the worst-hit areas in Jaffna, the only mitigation effort authorities can undertake is to place sandbags. There is a severe shortage of funds,” Sooriyarajah tells Mongabay.
He adds, “For the year 2025, we requested 325 million Sri Lankan rupees [LKR, or approximately US$1.1 million] but have not received any allocation yet. In 2024, we requested 129 million Sri Lankan rupees [about US$423,000] but received only 8 million LKR [US$27,000]. The inability to secure sufficient funds makes long-term mitigation difficult,” Sooriyarajah tells Mongabay.
While Jaffna struggles with freshwater shortages, Edison Marynathan, an environmentalist from Vidattaltivu in the northern district of Mannar, says coastal erosion is threatening critical infrastructure, including the bridge connecting Mannar to the mainland, which serves as a lifeline for thousands of fisher families.
“If the bridge connecting Mannar to the mainland submerges, thousands will be stranded, cutting off entire communities from essential services and livelihoods,” Marynathan tells Mongabay.
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When it rains, landslides occur, damaging infrastructure and silting up irrigation channels, which fill quickly, making it difficult for water to pass through. During drought, entire villages go without proper irrigation.
Chaminda Amaraweera, deputy director, Matale Disaster Management Unit
Biodiversity threatened in the hills
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Central province, home to the country’s economically vital tea plantations and montane forests, is facing different climate threats.
As the tea industry struggles to adapt to harsh changes in the climate, fluctuating yields and declining tea quality threaten the plantation economy.
S. Abeykoon, 64, is a small-scale tea farmer hailing from Nawalapitiya in the Central province district of Kandy. He says: “I planted tea expecting rain, but it’s been a prolonged drought instead. Water sources have all dried up, and my plants are dying.
“As children, we knew and experienced the seasons, but not anymore,” he adds.
Beyond tea plantations, the montane forests of Hanthana and Knuckles face increasing pressures from climate variability, deforestation and erratic rainfall patterns.
Hanthana’s climate vulnerabilities are worsening due to human activities like deforestation, illegal constructions contributing to drought conditions, landslides and human-animal conflicts, says I.A.K. Ranaweera, Kandy district’s assistant director of disaster management.
Manoj Rathnayake, a tour guide living in Hanthana notes: “Leopards now enter our villages looking for food. During the dry season, people are searching for water; when it rains, we suffer from landslides. The mountains are changing, but not for the better.
“Last year, we requested 350 million Sri Lankan rupees [approximately US$1.2 million] for mitigation efforts but received only 10 million LKR [US$ 33,833]. The absence of a comprehensive master plan for mitigation which identifies key risks, funding needs and long-term solutions is a long-felt need,” according to Ranaweera.
“There is a funding requirement to properly study and design a 10- to 20-year mitigation strategy for the Kandy district,” he tells Mongabay. It is not just Kandy. The Central province district of Matale is experiencing serious temperature changes and precipitation. Considered an area seriously affected, Matale faces erratic rainfall and prolonged droughts, devastating the local farming communities, says Chaminda Amaraweera, deputy director of Matale’s disaster management unit.
“When it rains, landslides occur, damaging infrastructure and silting up irrigation channels, which fill quickly, making it difficult for water to pass through. During drought, entire villages go without proper irrigation,” he tells Mongabay.
When a bridge collapsed during a landslide, a farming community in the Wilgamuwa area in Matale was completely cut off from markets, denying them essential supplies.
“Lack of access to markets impacts these farmers heavily. Climate adaptation is not just about responding to disasters. It is also about addressing economic problems of affected communities. If there are inadequate funds for mitigation, people’s economy will take a hit and worsen their living standards,” he says.
“In 2024, only two projects addressing mitigation needs were approved. This year, 11 projects have been proposed, but only four are expected to receive funding,” Amaraweera says.
Colombo’s urban heat risks
In February, Sri Lanka’s Department of Meteorology issued a heat advisory for several provinces warning against temperatures reaching amber, or “caution level” in several provinces, including Western province. It warned the public against heat cramps, dehydration and risks to vulnerable populations.
A 2020 study on Colombo’s urban heat island effect found that Colombo’s temperature has risen significantly due to increased urbanisation, loss of green cover and heat-absorbing infrastructure.
Satellite data analysis included in the same study showed that densely built-up areas experienced temperatures significantly higher than surrounding rural areas, compounding the effects of extreme heat waves.
“Street vendors and construction workers struggle due to extreme heat. This isn’t just a matter of heat alone but has strong impacts on livelihoods,” says co-founder of Climate Action Now Sri Lanka and climate advocate Melani Gunathilaka.
“For those who depend on outdoor work, from street vendors to construction workers, excessive heat means having to stay away from work for many hours. It reduces work hours and their productivity, along with their earning capacity. It is about economic loss for the daily wage earners,” Gunathilaka says.
In 2024, architect Nadeeka Jayaweera published a study that advocated for the integration of green infrastructure, such as tree-shaded parking spaces, to significantly reduce surface temperatures, depending on vegetation density and layout.
The study noted: “Parking lots have been identified as an islet of the Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) effect, as a substantial proportion of such spaces contain impervious materials. In the current situation, conventional parking lots serve as empty, lifeless zones, which unconsciously accumulate heat within the city.”
The study showed how perimeter landscaping combined with interior tree planting in diamond planters could provide the most effective cooling impact, surpassing standard green buffers around parking lots.
Jayaweera tells Mongabay, “Cities like Singapore prioritise policies to enhance urban greening as an integral part of climate adaptation. However, in Sri Lanka, parking spaces continue to be designed primarily for vehicular use, with little attention paid to their environmental impact.
“Everyone likes to park in the shade, but who wants to plant that tree?” asks Jayaweera.
Sri Lanka’s climate finance challenges
“We should move beyond mitigation efforts and adaptation strategies to actively seek solutions for increasing climatic impacts,” says Thusitha Sugathapala, a mechanical engineer with the University of Moratuwa and a delegate at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November 2024.
Sugathapala is a senior technical expert on climate change and sustainable development at SLYCAN Trust, a Colombo-based NGO promoting climate solutions.
He says Sri Lanka is constrained from tapping into available climate finance for adaption due to a range of issues: inadequate data systems, institutional weaknesses and limited capacity to design and implement viable projects.
Leel Randeni, who leads Sri Lanka’s Climate Change Secretariat, acknowledges that funding difficulties and governance gaps need to be addressed as a matter of priority.
“We need to improve the collective capacities within our institutions to be able to attract climate finance to address various impacts,” Randeni tells Mongabay.
“The challenge is not simply securing finance but ensuring it reaches the communities in need. This requires a multi-stakeholder engagement approach and inclusive platform to facilitate that,” Sugathapala adds.
According to him, gaps between central, provincial and local governments hinder effective multilevel engagement and governance. Initiatives like the Climate Smart Governance Dashboard by the global agricultural research group CGIAR aim to bridge these gaps, but some of that work remains at the pilot stages.
“Many initiatives have limited public participation. On paper, we have mechanisms for civil society engagement, but this does not often happen in reality,” he adds.
Randeni says the problem extends beyond mechanisms and operational issues. “Many officials who obtained extended leave up to five years for studies have not returned to Sri Lanka. This is creating serious problems in the way climate-related projects are being carried out. There’s no handover or knowledge transfer, thus creating a huge stumbling block,” Randeni says.
“The absence of a defined national strategy to benefit under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which enables carbon trading and cooperation to assist countries to achieve their nationally determined contributions is another barrier,” Sugathapala says.
Randeni adds, “Sri Lanka’s nationally determined contributions have faced delays in submission, but the government plans to submit the information by June, ahead of the subsidiary bodies session to be held in Bonn, Germany.”
This story was published with permission from Mongabay.com.
