President Maithripala Sirisena who on Friday opened the five sluice gates of the Moragahakanda reservoir, one of the twin-reservoirs of the Moagahakanda-Kaluganga multi-purpose Development project, will also open the second Kaluganga Reservoir on January 9, Project Director Engineer D.B.Wijeratne told the Sunday Observer.
Water filling to the 248-Ml cubic-meter-capacity Kaluganga reservoir had already commenced and will be inaugurated by the President at full water supply level on the appointed date, he said adding that the reservoir will be filled up to 218 meters from sea level.
The two reservoirs are 10 km apart and a new township Luggala is coming up in the vicinity with an initial population of 3,000 families consisting 15,000 people who are displaced from the Moragahakanda and Kaluganga tank beds. Twenty government institutions, including the Divisional Secretariat, will also form a component of the new town, Engr.Wijeratne said. The displaced families have been paid compensation for their houses that were inundated under the projects and each family gets a homestead plot and one and a half acres of paddy land, he said. A sum of Rs.9000 million has been paid as compensation to the displaced families, he said.
The ambitious project which is the dream of the President heralds prosperity and welfare to farmers of not only the North-Central province but also the Northern provinces, project authorities said. The augmentation project of the Iranamadu reservoir in Kilinochchi to increase the reservoir’s capacity from the present 131 MCM to 148 MCM and raising the water level from the present 34 feet to 36 feet has been completed under funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) while the canal rehabilitation project costing Rs.3,200 million has already been completed under funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the sources said. The feasibility study on transferring water to the Iranamadu tank is underway, the sources said.