Sri Lanka: Largest reservoir constructed by Chinese company commissioned

By APD writer Easwaran Rutnam

**COLOMBO, Jan. 8 (APD) ** -- Sri Lanka's largest reservoir which was constructed by a Chinese company, was commission by President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday.

The ‘Moragahakanda’ project will irrigate parched dry lands in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province on one side and Central and Eastern Provinces on the other.

With the commissioning of the reservoir, an increase of 64,000,000 cubic metres of water will flow from the reservoir to far flung regions, the government said.

The Moragahakanda Dam is a high gravity dam with a height of 65 meters. The dam has created the Moragahakanda Reservoir, which has an active storage capacity of 521,000,000 cubic meters.

Water from both reservoir, will be primarily used to support agricultural needs in an area of at least 81,422 hectares. This would increase rice production by 81% or 109,000 tons, amounting to an estimated monetary benefit of US$1.67 million, annually.

In addition to the irrigation of land, water from the Moragahakanda Reservoir will be used to power a 25-megawatt hydroelectric power station.

The project was designed and constructed by POWERCHINA. President Sirisena praised the company for its work.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)