The Hon. Upul Kithsiri
Hon. Upul Kithsiri raised an Adjournment Question to the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation on reservoir safety following Cyclone “Diva,” focusing on concerns about the Udawalawa Reservoir after recent spilling. He asked for details on the reservoir’s construction year, objectives, storage capacity and irrigable area, and sought clarification on whether national highways run over reservoir bunds in Sri Lanka. He further questioned whether the main road on the Udawalawa bund poses a safety risk and whether the Ministry has considered alternative arrangements.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I direct this Adjournment Question to the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation.
¶ 02 Following Cyclone “Diva,” uncertainty arose regarding certain reservoirs. Similar events may recur. While our reservoir system is generally robust, uncertainties can arise. Recently, all reservoirs filled and spilled. Among them, the Udawalawa Reservoir—designed to withstand such conditions—has become unsafe due to certain factors. Accordingly, I ask:
¶ 03 1. In which year was Udawalawa Reservoir constructed? 2. What were its primary objectives? 3. What is its storage capacity and irrigable area? 4. Do A- and B-class national highways pass over reservoir bunds anywhere in Sri Lanka? 5. Does having such a main road atop the Udawalawa bund create risk to the bund? 6. If so, have alternatives been considered by your Ministry? 7. If not, why?
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Wednesday, 7 January 2026 ·No. 23112 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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/lk/speeches/23382
Cite as: The Hon. Upul Kithsiri. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 7 January 2026. No. 23112. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/23382