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 th...

  Posted on  August 15, 2012 Courtesy:  Mahaweli River: Maduru Oya Dam is Built with Help from Canada | canadiansrilankanpartnerships Mahaweli River: Maduru Oya Dam is Built with Help from Canada he signboard at Maduru Oya dam showing the key facts and players involved Sri Lanka is proud of its ancient “hydraulic” civilization. King Prakramabahu in Polonnaruwa famously said that “not a single drop of water that falls as rain should reach the ocean without benefitting man”. Modern engineers follow in the footsteps of those building thousands of years ago, as Canadians supporting the construction of Maduru Oya dam discovered when they dug up an ancient sluice structure. Centuries ago, earthen bunds or dams were built to perfection, a herculean task using elephants and manual labour. The Mahaweli is the longest river in Sri Lanka with a watershed covering one fifth of the island. Its tributaries are dammed and provide 1000 square kilometres of irrigation in the dry zone...

  World Heritage Irrigation Structures Courtesy:  Maduru Oya Ancient Dam and the Sluice | International Commission on Irrigation & Drainage (ICID) Maduru Oya Ancient Dam and the Sluice The outlet conduits of the sluice are about 66 m in length and are encased in a brick structure which is about 9.5 m wide and 2.84 m in height. Bricks of an exceptionally strong type had been used in the reservoir. Specimens of bricks from this part of the structure measure about 45.5 cm in length, 22.5 m in width and 6.5 cm in thickness.   An interesting and unusual element in the layout of the conduits is the incorporation of the so-called “wing wall”. This wall, built of a kiln–made brick, projects to the left of the path of the outlet conduits and extends along the line of the dam for about 10 m. It seems probable that the designers of the Maduru Oya sluice realized their construction, which had to withstand the effects of the passage of water at high pressure, needed, in addition t...

Courtesy Times Online   Young engineer who helped save ancient Maduru Oya sluice Features Jul 29, 2020   2206   2 Share Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Twitter Appreciation - Saravanamuttu  Sivarasa (Siva) Saravanamuttu Sivarasa (1952- 2020) the well-known, highly respected Civil Engineer, a product of University of Peradeniya and Ananda College, Colombo passed away peacefully in Sydney on July 3, 2020. His funeral was held on July 22, 2020 in Sydney. Siva will be sadly missed by Sydney community of Sri Lankan descent and friends. Sivarasa belonged to a rare breed of Sri Lankans trilingual to the core as he could read, write and speak in all three languages with equal ease.  Born in Jaffna, Siva possibly had at least part of his early primary education in Jaffna. Siva had confided in me more than once that his father who served in the Department of Police was a humble constable with limited means, but was very keen to give him a sound education. Educating Siva in an ...

  Extract  From the Sunday Island, March 5, 2000: The folly of the Eppawala Project proposal by A. Denis N. Fernando Fellow National Academy of Sciences Consultant Mr. Fernando is also the 1998 recipient of the Ananda Coomaraswamy Memorial Medal of the Geological Society of Sri Lanka for his exceptional contribution to the Geology of Sri Lanka.  "It would be relevant to indicate here that the unique upper sluice of the ancient Maduru Oya Dam, which I discovered is also unique in that the bricks of this ancient sluice was bonded together with resinous material making the sluice barrel waterproof, in the manner the ancient Persians built them. When the Canadian contractors threatened to blast this ancient Sluice as it was interfering with their work, I had to plead with Mr. Gamini Dissanayake to save it as it is a unique artefact seen nowhere else in the world. He in turn convinced president J. R. Jayewardene who gave an order to save it. The Govt. spent 15 million r...