Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera has raised concerns over the disparity in the distribution of water for cultivation, stating that although it has been five days since water from the Samanalawewa Reservoir was released to the Udawalawe Reservoir, certain farmlands are yet to receive any water.

Speaking further in this regard, the Minister said that he intends to bring to the Cabinet’s attention the severe crop damage in the Angunakolapelessa area, on account of the lack of water.

Meanwhile, Amaraweera also revealed that President Ranil Wickremesinghe intends to implement a programme which would allow for all reservoirs to be controlled from one place.

On 08 August, authorities commenced releasing water from the Samanalawewa reservoir to the Udawalawe reservoir for agricultural purposes.

According to State Minister of Power & Energy D.V. Chanaka, water is being released at a rate of 3.5 million cubic meters 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 morning (Aug 07). 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 Sunday (Aug 06), 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 Samanalawewa reservoir and Veli Oya was added to the Udawalawe reservoir on Sunday.

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