Updated 04.10 | Published 04.05
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full screen A boy plays in waterlogged streets in Biyagama, a suburb of Sri Lanka’s largest city, Colombo. Photo: Eranga Jayawardena/AP/TT
At least 16 people have died and over 12,000 homes have been damaged in heavy flooding across large parts of Sri Lanka.
The government has been forced to shut down parts of the island nation’s electricity grid and, as a precaution, closed a majority of schools. When they can reopen depends entirely on how the fight against the floods goes, according to the Department of Education.
For weeks, the country has been hit by an unusually harsh monsoon with heavy rain and strong winds. The weekend’s rain has caused extensive damage to infrastructure and arable land.