• Mahaweli Authority claims 800 acres of paddy and 100 ha of other crops lost due to lack of water from Udawalawe

The authorities have commenced releasing water from the Samanalawewa reservoir to the Udawalawe reservoir for agricultural purposes yesterday (8).

According to the State Minister of Power and Energy D.V. Chanaka, water is being released at a rate of 3.5 million cubic metres per day for three days.

The active water capacity of the Udawalawe reservoir, which has a total water capacity of 217,800 acre-feet, had dropped to 956 acre-feet as of Monday (7) morning. This is merely 0.45% of the full water capacity of the water body. Under normal conditions, the Udawalawe reservoir releases at least 32,000 acre-feet of water daily during the farming season. However, the water body had released only 934 acre-feet of water to croplands on 6 August, with 521 acre-feet of water from the right canal and 413 acre-feet of water from the left canal. According to the Mahaweli Authority, a total of 545 acre-feet of water from the Samanalawewa reservoir and the Veli Oya was added to the Udawalawe reservoir on 6 August.

It also mentioned that the active water capacity of the Udawalawe reservoir has depleted to the lowest level recorded in recent history.

Meanwhile, internal sources of the Mahaweli Authority revealed that at least 800 acres of paddy fields and 100 hectares (ha) of additional crops were lost as a result of the insufficient amounts of water provided from the Udawalawe reservoir to croplands.