Health authorities in the Uva Province have proposed equipping remote health facilities and regional administrative offices with Starlink satellite internet.
The proposal follows the impact of Cyclone Ditwah, whose floods and landslides cut power and telecommunication networks, leaving health officials unable to coordinate the emergency response.
Recounting the crisis operations, Uva Province Provincial Director of Health Services Dr. Mahendra Senevirathna told The Sunday Morning that rising floodwaters and infrastructure destruction had led to a complete breakdown of telephone and cellular communications across the affected areas.
Cyclone Ditwah made landfall on 28 November 2025, causing severe flooding, landslides, and infrastructure destruction across the Uva Province. At least six major bridges in the province were completely destroyed, disrupting key regional road networks.
The failure left regional health leaders, emergency response teams, and frontline hospitals in several parts of the country isolated. They had no real-time reporting channels and no way to coordinate urgent evacuations. Healthcare workers and administrators were also unable to check on the safety of their own families at the height of the crisis.
Dr. Senevirathna explained that equipping remote health facilities and regional offices with Starlink satellite internet was a recommendation included in the health authorities’ disaster management plans after the severe network blackouts.
When asked about any delay or progress in procuring Starlink, he said it had been proposed as an essential baseline solution, at minimum for regional administrative offices, so that critical communication channels would remain open when landlines and cellular networks collapsed.
He confirmed that health authorities had formally integrated satellite connectivity into their disaster management strategy. The proposal aims to give remote health centres and regional administrative offices independent satellite links. He said this backup infrastructure would keep essential medical reporting, patient transfer requests, and command communications running even if cellular towers and landlines failed.
Alongside the proposed technological upgrades, Uva Province health authorities have added local communication drills and contingency reporting hierarchies to provincial disaster response plans. These frameworks set out clear reporting steps that begin as soon as heavy rainfall starts.
Provincial health leadership is also formally documenting its disaster response experiences and administrative records in consolidated reports. The aim is to preserve institutional memory and maintain long-term emergency readiness.
Nationwide, the cyclone damaged 243 health facilities and disrupted essential services for affected and displaced populations. The Badulla District was particularly hard hit, with several facilities severely damaged and some completely destroyed.
According to Disaster Management Centre (DMC) data, 90,127 people in the Uva Province were directly affected by the cyclone, roughly 25% of the total affected population nationwide.
The cyclone caused widespread telecommunication failures across Sri Lanka in late November 2025, leaving thousands of people without mobile and data services for days.
Prolonged electrical grid failures and fuel shortages were the main reasons thousands of mobile towers shut down and went offline. Floods and landslides also severed core and secondary optical fibre backbone networks, isolating entire regions. Low-lying telecom equipment sites were submerged, which prevented repair crews from reaching them quickly.
The United Nations Situation Report on Sri Lanka on Cyclone Ditwah, published on 6 March, also flagged problems in how information reached affected families. It noted that inconsistent communication about eligibility criteria and procedural steps, together with limited grievance mechanisms and legal advice, had undermined trust and equitable access to support.