The Minneriya Reservoir has fallen to 36 per cent of capacity, and irrigation releases for the Yala paddy season have now stopped or are about to stop at all three of Polonnaruwa district’s main tanks.
Minneriya, the district’s second-largest reservoir, holds about 40,000 acre-feet against a capacity of roughly 110,000, Ada Derana reported. Releases from it for Yala cultivation are scheduled to conclude within the next two days.
The other two have already been closed
Parakrama Samudra, the district’s largest tank at about 116,000 acre-feet, is down to roughly 63,000 acre-feet. Ada Derana puts that at 56 per cent, though the two volume figures it gives work out closer to 54 per cent; the report describes both as approximate. Water releases from it for the Yala season have already been terminated.
Giritale, with a capacity of 21,600 acre-feet, is falling rapidly and now holds less than 8,500 acre-feet — under 40 per cent. Its Yala releases have also been halted.
Where this sits nationally
The Polonnaruwa figures track the wider decline. Storage across reservoirs managed by the Irrigation Department stood at 34.7 per cent on Saturday, and the department reported on Friday that Kaudulla, also in Polonnaruwa, had dropped to 20 per cent while Senanayake Samudraya, the country’s largest reservoir, sat at 18 per cent.
Polonnaruwa is one of the seven districts the Disaster Management Centre counts in its El Niño dry-weather tally, though it accounts for a small share of the 84,545 people recorded as affected — a total dominated by Monaragala and Batticaloa.
Closing Yala releases at the end of the season is normal practice. What the figures show is the level the tanks are being left at going into the inter-monsoon period, with the Maha season sowing ahead and the dry spell already forecast to cut next year’s coconut yield.
Ada Derana did not say whether the Irrigation Department expects Minneriya to support Maha cultivation, and no other verified newsroom had reported the Polonnaruwa figures at the time of writing.
