Extensive flooding swept across Sri Lanka at the end of November 2025 after Cyclone Ditwah brought days of intense rainfall to the island nation in the northern Indian Ocean. The heaviest impacts were recorded in and around Colombo, the country’s capital and largest urban area, where overflowing rivers and saturated ground triggered widespread inundation, landslides, and mudslides. According to the Disaster Management Centre (DMC), the event caused 355 fatalities, 366 people were reported missing, and at least 209,568 people were displaced as the situation escalated across multiple districts.
To support emergency operations, the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) was activated to map the affected regions and assess the scale of damage. Based on nine remotely sensed images analysed during the activation, more than 105,800 individuals were affected across eight areas of interest examined so far, with further assessments continuing as conditions evolved.
The Copernicus data visualisation featured here depicts the flooded zones near Colombo on 30 November, with inundated areas marked in cyan. The mapping shows widespread water coverage across suburbs surrounding the capital and along key transport corridors. Within this defined area of interest, an estimated 149,000 people were affected, over 190 hectares of built-up land were submerged, and more than 426 kilometres of roads were damaged, reflecting the extensive disruption to mobility, services, and emergency access routes.
Cyclone Ditwah made landfall on Sri Lanka’s eastern coast on 28 November with maximum sustained winds of about 65 km/h before tracking north-eastward and then northward over the Bay of Bengal. By 1 December it had weakened into a tropical depression east of Chennai in southern India, where additional disruptions and school closures were reported. Sri Lanka activated the Union Civil Protection Mechanism on 29 November to reinforce search and relief operations as the situation intensified.
Article Source:
Press Release/Material by CEMS
Featured image credit: European Union, Copernicus Emergency Management Service
