The District Disaster Management Unit says that although the bad weather conditions that affected the Polonnaruwa district have subsided to some extent, all the big reservoirs are still overflowing and the Polonnaruwa-Madakalpuwa road from Gallalelle to Manampitiya has been closed. Even today (31) in the afternoon, the flood level on the Polonnaruwa-Madakalpuwa road from Gallella to Manampitiya was about 3 feet.
Chief Irrigation Engineer Anjana Abeysinghe says that the main irrigation reservoirs Moragahakanda, Minneriya, Kaudulla, Parakrama Samudraya are being drained further and the spillway gates of Parakrama Samudray will be kept open by 10 feet each and 1230 cubic feet per second will be released into the Amban River. Two sluice gates of the Moragahakanda reservoir are further open and release 2500 cubic feet per second.
The sluice gates of Minneriya Reservoir are kept open further and 2000 cubic feet per second are released into Minneriya Oya. All the sluice gates of Kaudulla Reservoir are still open and 4800 cubic feet per second are released into Kahambilia Oya.
In addition to this, the disaster management unit says that the water level of the Mahaweli river is still in a high-risk flood condition and its water level has exceeded 5 meters. Due to this, many low-lying areas in the Polonnaruwa district have been submerged and the historic Somavathiya sacred site has been submerged by 3 feet of water.
Polonnaruwa District Secretary Sujantha Ekanayake said that nearly 100 families affected by the bad weather conditions are being temporarily detained in 4 detention centers and that they will continue to provide cooked food. He further said that the victims of Tamankaduwa Divisional Secretariat Division are kept in 3 detention centers and the victims of Dimbulagala Divisional Secretariat Division are detained in one detention center.
Meanwhile, the sources of the Department of Agricultural Services state that about 1000 acres of paddy fields have been severely affected due to the flood situation in the district.
The Department of Railways said that the special train service between Polonnaruwa and Manampitiya for passengers traveling to Batticaloa, Mahiyangana, Dehi Attakandiya, Ampara, Welikanda, Aralagangwila etc. will continue to operate from the 29th.
Bandara Mudianse
From Polonnaruwa.