The project of kotmale in Sri Lanka
The central highlands of Sri Lanka is the origin of Kotmale Oya River and its height is 7000 ft. it river is running between two hills balled tispan and kadadora. This valley has productive soil and an ideal land for farming. At the time of king sri lanka many villages were involved in pottery and carpentry. Even at that time this land was very vibrant with paddy cultivation. It was house of goldsmiths and blacksmiths. Nanu oya river, Gregory’s tank, and Pidurutalagala Oya stream, St Clair’s falls, Cat Snake Garadiya falls, Puna falls, Devon falls, dash their waters in kotmale oya river.
From accident time to today things have been so improved and developed that the water which caused ruination of villages and hamlets of central highlands because of flood now being used for framing, it is the main purpose of Mahaweli multi-purpose irrigation project to dash the water of flood into farming land as required.
The symbols of flood ruination of that time can still be seen in today’s railway station of Gampola which near Kandy, the gateway to central Highlands of Sri Lanka.
The kotmale project was approved from the government of Sri Lanka in 1961. This project started with the partnership of Agency for International Development (USAID) and sri lankan government, And after that by UNDP-FAO from 1964 to 1968. In fact the this need of this project was considered in 1050 but it started a year they get independence from colonial British rulers. Construction work started in 1979, tank was placed in 1984 and it started in 1985.
The dame was of 520m in length and its height was 122m and it controls 174 million water of kotmale oya river, and it was used to produce hydroelectric power generation which is of 206 megawatts. After using required water, it falls into Mahaweli ganga river and Atabage Oya river. Kotmale project was the one of five big projects related to Mahaweli river diversification which itself was the biggest project that ever started island. Sri Lankan government has paid a very big amount for this project for its power stations, tunnels tanks, and dam.
In this project it was not just the money which was invested also 57 villages and 54 ancient and and buddhist temples were also get ruined which were on the both sides of Kotmale Oya river hugging Tispan hill and Kadala hill. That was the end of everything even of floods too. All this was important for development of sri Lanka but its history will never come back.
