Ancient Maduru Oya Sluice

 

Ancient Maduru Oya Sluice

In late 1978 or early 1979, as an employee of the River Valleys Development Board, I had occasion to visit several worksites, in the North Central Province, including the Maduru Oya worksite at Pimburettawa, on official duties. This was shortly after the 1978 November, cyclone.

M. S. M. De Silva , Technical Secretary , RVDB

The preliminary work on the Maduru Oya dam site was entrusted to the RVDB & the work commenced in late 1978 under the direction of Senior Engineer M. S. M. De Silva, the then Technical Secretary of the RVDB, a veteran of the Gal Oya days. Although there was Circuit Bungalow at Pimburettawa, he was living in a caravan close to the proposed dam site, overseeing the jungle clearing operations etc., which showed his commitment to the job in hand. A number of experienced officers & employees from the Gal Oya days were handling the heavy machinery operations & units.

In the course of our duties, the team & I visited the jungle area that was being cleared & saw a partially exposed structure, which appeared to be an ancient one. The Supervisor in charge of jungle clearing informed us that they had been briefed to watch out for any ancient structures (irrigation or religious) in the course of the jungle clearing operations, as it was done both at Gal Oya & Uda Walawe etc. & that according to Mr. de Silva, this could be a part of the ancient sluice. He informed us that jungle clearing around the area had been halted, until a team from the Dept. of Archaeology arrived to inspect the structure.

The RVDB continued preliminary work at the site for several months but was moved out once the contract for the project was awarded to a Joint Venture of 4 Canadian firms (FAFJ), which undertook the work from April 1980 to June 1983.

I left the RVDB at the end of 1979 & did not see the fully excavated structure – an ancient sluice – at the site.

A picture of the fully excavated ancient sluice appears below:




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