In a National ceremony the President commissioned the Sri Lanka’s largest multi- functional irrigation project, Moragahakanda-Kalu Ganga Multi-Purpose Development Project and released water from the Moragahakanda reservoir at the auspicious time of 11.20am to mark the completion of the project which commenced on January 25, 2007.
President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe participated as the Chief Guests. The 660,000 acre-feet Moragahakanda Reservoir, constructed across Amban River – a tributary of the Mahaweli River, 2 kilometres upstream of the weir at Elahera, is the last reservoir of the Mahaweli Development Project.
The Moragahakanda-Kalu Ganga project will provide irrigation facilities to 81,422 hectares in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, provide potable and industrial water supply to Anuradhapura and Trincomalee towns and generate electricity by hydropower while opening up 5000 hectares of new land for agriculture development in Northern, North Central, Eastern and North Western provinces. Water will be supplied to more than 2000 large and small tanks in the North-Central, North Western and Eastern provinces.The Project will also generate 25 mill watts of hydro-power to the national grid.
Increasing inland fish production, provision of potable and industrial water requirements, Eco tourism and effective flood control are the other targets of the project.
