Weheragala Reservoir and Archeological Ruins (වෙහෙරගල වැව හා පුරා විද්‍යා ස්මාරක)

RATE THIS LOCATION :1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
Loading...

The idea of the Weheragala Reservoir was born when the Lunugamvehera  Reservoir failed to live up to the expectation of providing adequate water for the farming community of the South. The Lunugamvehera  Reservoir was built by damming the Kirindi Oya at Lunugamvehera in 1985 to provide water to the farmers of the south. But this proved inadequate for the new colonies which were settled to engage in cultivation in the area.

The Weheragala Reservoir was built in 2009 by damming the Menik Ganga at Weheragala to store and divert the excess water of Menik Ganga to Lunugamvehera Reservoir to supplement the water collected from Kirindi Oya.

The Reservoir is situated in block 5 of the Yala National Park boarding the Lunugamvehera National Park. The Reservoir covers 3500 acres and can hold 75 million cubic meters of water.  The dam is 2 km in length, 23 meters in height and 18 meters wide.  A 23-kilometre canal from the Weheragala takes the water from Menik Ganga to Lunugamvehera Reservoir.

A unique feature of this canal is that after 3.5 kilometres, it goes underground and surfaces after about 250 meters to avoid overlapping other water sources. Then, the canal travels a further 13.8 km to join a natural canal at the point called Sittaram Palama (bridge). This natural canal carries the water to the Lunugamvehera Reservoir.

Water collected at the Weheragala reservoir also feeds about 5 waterholes in the park creating an ideal environment for the wildlife in Yala Block 5 and Lunugamvehera National Park.

A few Buddhist archaeology sites around the Weheragala too has been conserved with the development of the Tank.

The entrance to Weheragala is from Gal-Ge on Sella Kataragama – Buttala Road. There is a bungalow maintained by the wildlife department by the tank which can accommodate 10 people. The cost is Rs 10,000 + charges (which comes to around Rs 14,000 net)  per night. Booking needs to be done at the Department of Wildlife Conservation in Colombo.

Also See

Map of  Weheragala Reservoir and Archeological Ruins 

Please click on the button below to load the Dynamic Google Map (ගූගල් සිතියම් පහලින්)
.

The map above also shows other places of interest within a approximately 20 km radius of the current site. Click on any of the markers and the info box to take you to information of these sites

Zoom out the map to see more surrounding locations using the mouse scroll wheel or map controls.

Travel Directions to Weheragala Reservoir

Route from Colombo to Weheragala Reservoir
Through : Ratnapura – Pelmadulla – Udawalawe – Thanamalwila – Kataragama
Distance : 265 km
Travel time : 6 hours.
Driving directions : see on google map

© www.amazinglanka.com

Leave a Reply