The 2027 Budget allocates Rs 10,900 million for urban flood control and stormwater management, of which Rs 3,200 million goes to canal restoration and flood control in Colombo and its suburbs.
Presenting the Budget in Parliament on Thursday, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said recurring floods in Colombo were caused largely by inadequate maintenance of the major canals and by drainage systems without the capacity to carry rainwater away.
The two figures reported separately by the Daily Mirror and Hiru News are not competing accounts of the same allocation. Hiru News sets out the structure: Rs 3,200 million for urban flood control and ecosystem improvement including canal restoration in Colombo and adjacent towns, and Rs 7,700 million for stormwater management projects overall — together the Rs 10,900 million headline.
What starts in 2027
Work already under way at Kolonnawa and Oliyumulla continues. New projects expected to begin in 2027, as listed by the Daily Mirror, are:
| Project | Area |
|---|---|
| Mudun Ela project | Wattala, Kelaniya, Biyagama |
| Stormwater drainage improvement | Piliyandala, Kesbewa |
| St Sebastian Canal rehabilitation | Colombo |
| Kirulapana Canal rehabilitation | Colombo |
| Hamilton Canal (one section) | Colombo suburbs |
Hiru News groups the St Sebastian, Kirulapana and Hamilton canal works under flood control for north Colombo; the Daily Mirror lists them without a regional label. The two filings otherwise match on the project list.
Beyond Colombo
Flood prevention work extends to several other districts:
- Kalutara District — the Bindunu Ela canal system at Wadduwa and Molligoda
- Gampaha and Ratnapura districts — drainage improvements
- Dikwella, Beruwala, Rathgama — drainage improvements
- Mannar District — addressed through the ongoing Malwathu Oya project
- Ampara and Batticaloa — preliminary work on the Mundeni Aru project begins next year
Context
The allocation lands a week after Colombo flooded heavily on 6 November. The rainfall figure for that event remains contested across the reporting — filings have carried 150mm in two hours, 68mm in 40 minutes, nearly 100mm in an hour and 129mm over a few hours, attributed to different officials, and no filing reconciles them. What is not contested is the diagnosis the President gave on Thursday: the canals were not maintained and the drains are too small. The Colombo Municipal Council had already pointed at blocked and under-capacity drainage in its own account of that week.
Sourcing note
Two verified newsrooms have filed. The Rs 3,200 million and Rs 7,700 million components sum exactly to the Rs 10,900 million headline, which is the clearest evidence that the two reported figures describe one allocation rather than two.
Not reported
Neither filing gives a completion date for any project, states how much of the Rs 3,200 million goes to each named canal, or says whether the Rs 10,900 million is new money or a continuation of existing programme budgets. Neither addresses whether the works would have prevented the 6 November flooding, and neither mentions maintenance funding — the stated cause of the problem — as distinct from capital works.