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Victoria Dam stability certification: Covid-19 delays int’l experts’ visit

10 Jan 2021

  • Inspection to take up to five months
By Sarah Hannan The arrival of a team of foreign experts that was to inspect the structural stability of the Victoria Reservoir Dam has been postponed due to the Covid-19 situation in Sri Lanka, The Sunday Morning learnt. The expert team, initially scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka this month, was called on to assess the probable impacts on the dam due to the series of tremors that took place in the Kandy region last year. “The State Ministry of Canals and Common Infrastructure Development in Settlements in Mahaweli Zones was planning to bring these international experts to the country this month, but we have reconsidered inviting them at this moment since the pandemic is not showing any signs of slowing down. Even after they arrive in the country, they will have to spend about four to five months to analyse the data and submit their observations and recommendations,” State Minister Siripala Gamalath told The Sunday Morning. Until such time, the teams that have been deployed by the Mahaweli Authority, the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB), and the Disaster Management Centre, along with academics in the field, will continue to conduct their studies and update the State Ministry committee appointed in this regard. Although the maintenance of the dam has been conducted according to international standards, the international team of experts was scheduled to visit and assess the stability of the Victoria Reservoir Dam as well as other reservoirs including Randenigala Dam, Kotmale Dam, and Senanayake Samudraya. Since the dam protection project has been in place since 1985, the stability of the Victoria Reservoir Dam has been assessed and fortified on five occasions over the past 35 years, the Mahaweli Authority confirmed. The Victoria Dam has been built to resist seismic activity at a magnitude of up to 3.5 on the Richter Scale, and none of the recent tremors in the surroundings of Digana, Kandy have breached the maximum limit of such resistance. A total of 210 megawatts is generated by the Victoria Hydropower Project Dam for the national grid and it also irrigates farmlands in the Mahaweli B and C zones. The reservoir has a water capacity of 722 million cubic metres. Investigations are still continuing to confirm whether the Earth tremors are occurring consequent to limestone mining. According to GSMB Chairman Anura Walpola, steps will be taken to control limestone quarries in Mahaweli lands. The GSMB announced last week that if seismic waves are generated when mining activities are carried out, the mining companies would be required to halt their operations. Furthermore, the GSMB is also to regulate the license issuance process for quarries to operate in potentially dangerous areas that are located in the vicinity of the said reservoir. While focus has been turned towards improving the dam structure stability of reservoirs under the Mahaweli Authority, The Sunday Morning learnt that the Irrigation Department too is considering fortifying their reservoir and canal structures. When contacted, Director General of Irrigation Eng. K.D.Nihal Siriwardana explained: “We completed a dam structure fortification programme in 2019 for the main reservoirs that are under the Department. This did not give prominence to the stability of dams in terms of withstanding seismic activity that could occur in the region. Moreover, since the reservoirs are in low-lying areas, the probable disasters that could occur are fairly minimal.” However, Eng. Siriwardana noted that following the recent seismic activities that were reported in the area of the Mahaweli Authority-managed Victoria Reservoir, the need to install monitoring tools has arisen. The reservoirs that belong to the Mahaweli Authority are situated in the Hill Country, and if a dam breach takes place, it can affect a collection of human settlements and cause a major disaster. Therefore, ensuring the stability of dams and the constant monitoring of seismic activities are important, Siriwardana explained.


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