Udawalawe reservoir almost empty

By Rathindra Kuruwita

The Udawalawe reservoir that has a total capacity of 217,800 acre-feet only had 956 acre-feet of water by Monday morning, according to the Irrigation Department.

This is only 0.45 percent of the total capacity of the reservoir, irrigation engineers say.

During the farming season, about 32,000 acre-feet of water are usually released for agriculture.

However, only 934 acre-feet of water were released for agriculture on Sunday.

The Mahaweli Authority (MA) said it was the lowest water level recorded for the past 20 years or so.

The MA added that 800 hectares of paddy land irrigated by the Udawalawe reservoir had been destroyed due to the prevailing drought.

The Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR) however said that the officials were making statements on damage to agriculture, based on mere conjecture.

“The truth is, no one has scientifically calculated the damage to agriculture due to the drought. This is unfortunate. We need to work with real data,” Sajeewa Chamikara of MONLAR told The Island.