Sri Lanka’s largest reservoir and dam at Moragahakanda in Matale, built at a cost of Rs180 billion and consisting two irrigation canals and a hydropower plant, opened its sluice gates for the first time in January 2018. The dam is part of the greater Mahaweli River irrigation system. The reservoir is also fed by another dam built across the Kaluganga river via a 10km underground tunnel. The high-gravity dam feeds water via two separate irrigation systems to arid areas in Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and the Vanni in the North, and Trincomalee in the East.
65m
Height of the Moragahakanda dam
521 million m3
Reservoir capacity
81,442ha
Area of agriculture supported by the dam
25MW
Capacity of the hydropower plant at the facility