Work has begun on clearing the Gimpatha Canal in Panadura, a waterway that had gone uncleaned for years because of what were described as technical obstacles.

The operation started on Friday under the leadership of Kalutara district MP Nilanthi Kottahachchi, Hiru News reported, drawing on an account the MP posted to her own social media page.

The waterway and the money

The canal runs about three kilometres across three Grama Niladhari divisions in the Keselwatte zone of the Panadura electorate. According to the MP’s account, it had become severely polluted through unauthorised construction along its banks and dumped waste.

The clean-up is being run with the Pradeshiya Sabha as the implementing authority. Funding is pooled from two sources: allocations from the 2026 decentralised budget and allocations from the Praja Shakthi Committees of the three divisions involved.

That funding structure is the practical answer to why the work is happening now. Decentralised budget allocations are the standing mechanism through which an MP directs capital to works inside their own electorate, and pairing it with committee-level allocations spreads the cost across the three divisions the canal crosses rather than loading it onto one.

What is not reported

The source does not specify what the “technical issues” were that blocked earlier attempts, how long the canal had gone uncleaned, how much the work will cost, how long it is expected to take, or whether the unauthorised structures along the banks are to be removed as part of it. Nor does it say whether the canal’s blockage had contributed to flooding in Keselwatte — the usual consequence when a drainage channel of this kind silts up in a built-up coastal area.

The account originates with the MP rather than with the Pradeshiya Sabha or an independent inspection, and the figures above are hers.

Local waterway and drain clearance has been a recurring strand of the government’s Clean Sri Lanka programme, though the Hiru report does not place this particular project under that banner.

Hiru News was the only verified newsroom LankaNewz tracks carrying a report of this at the time of writing.