Anuradhapura District Secretary Rajith Wimalasooriya has called upon the public to report illegal land occupations to Wildlife and Forest Conservation officials, Divisional Secretaries, Grama Niladharis, and the police to facilitate swift legal action. “We will pursue court cases against encroachers, as strict legal action will serve as a deterrent,” he said.
In response to the growing issue, Divisional Secretaries have called upon the District Agriculture Committee to expedite the demarcation of tank reservation boundaries, as the lack of clearly marked borders has helped encroachers to evade legal repercussions.
Most of irrigation tanks in the Anuradhapura district are in a state of disrepair, with leakages and seepages posing a serious threat to their structural integrity. District Irrigation Director Engineer Jayantha De Silva said that nearly all tanks, regardless of their size, require urgent maintenance.
Two of the district’s largest reservoirs, Nuwarawewa (36,050 acre-feet) and Tissa Wewa (3,500 acre-feet) in the Anuradhapura city and the Sacred City, are under constant monitoring due to water leaks and seepages. The Irrigation Director General has ordered immediate preventive measures, including a ban on all traffic along the bund roads of these reservoirs to prevent potential disasters.
Encroachment has further aggravated the situation, with 476 cases of illegal land occupation reported around Nuwarawewa alone. De Silva said that Government agencies have been instructed not to issue land permits or grants near irrigation canals and reservoirs without prior approval from irrigation authorities, as unregulated settlements contribute to the tanks’ deterioration.
Officials said that without urgent intervention, the district’s vital irrigation infrastructure remains at serious risk of failure, endangering lives, property, and the region’s agricultural economy.
