Cyclone Ditwah exposed Lanka’s real housing crisis View(s):A land-use and population capacity analysisBy Sydney Marcus SilvaSri Lanka’s recurring housing crises, increasingly intensified by climate-related disasters, reflect long-standing structural failures in land-use planning rather than absolute land scarcity. This paper argues that Sri Lanka’s housing crisis is fundamentally a land-use governance problem, shaped by historical environmental transformation, weak regulatory enforcement, and the absence of long-term settlement planning. Colonial land transformationand environmental degradationThe roots of Sri Lanka’s contemporary land-use challenges lie in the colonial plantation economy established after 1815. DiscussionThe findings challenge the widely held assumption that Sri Lanka’s housing crisis is driven by land scarcity. Development of a national housing and settlement strategy emphasising semi-rural and suburban growth nodes linked to industry and services.

Source: Sunday Times January 04, 2026 05:34 UTC