Sri Lanka faces 'worst' El Nino, minister says

Sri Lanka is likely to face heavy rains and severe drought in the coming months during what Environment Minister Dhammika Patabendi called the island's "worst" El Nino climate phenomenon.

Patabendi said weather experts forecast that current dry conditions will give way to heavy rains from late September until December, followed by a prolonged drought early next year.

"The drought will be very severe between January and April, and that is when we will face serious challenges," Patabendi told reporters in Colombo. "We are preparing to mitigate the impending crisis."

The government has set up a ministerial panel to handle the expected effects. Authorities last month urged rice farmers to begin the main planting season in early October, about two weeks ahead of schedule, to use the expected early rains.

Sri Lanka has 22 million people, and agriculture employs about a quarter of the workforce. Patabendi said the government was also studying possible effects on economic growth as the country recovers from its 2022 financial crisis.

Officials said water reservoirs, including those supplying hydroelectric power stations, are at 56 percent capacity. Patabendi said there are concerns about water availability next year if drought conditions intensify as forecast.

El Nino is a natural climate variation that warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, changing wind and rain patterns worldwide. Human-caused climate change can amplify its impacts by making more energy and moisture available for extreme weather.

Intense rains between October and December could trigger mudslides in mountainous regions, which were badly hit in November after Cyclone Ditwah. Ditwah affected almost the entire island, killed nearly 650 people and caused infrastructure damage estimated by the World Bank at about $4.1 billion.