A 16-year-old schoolboy has drowned at Samanalawewa after being swept away by a current during an educational trip, police said. His body was recovered after a search by police and local residents, the Daily Mirror reported.
The student was a resident of Kiriyankumbura, Bibile, in the Monaragala district, Hiru News reported. Samanalawewa Police confirmed the death.
What happened
A group of students from the Monaragala area had travelled to visit Sabaragamuwa University and were continuing towards the Kuragala sacred site when the buses stopped near the Samanalawewa dam to look at it.
Three students from one of the buses went down to a water outlet nearby to bathe. One of them was caught in the current and swept away.
Police launched a search with the help of residents of the area. The boy’s body was recovered. It is being held at the Balangoda Hospital mortuary, and Samanalawewa Police are investigating.
The two accounts agree on every element of the sequence. They differ only in how the spot is rendered in English — the Daily Mirror calls it a “water outlet”, Hiru a “water leak” — both describing the discharge below the dam rather than the reservoir itself.
Context
Samanalawewa is a large rockfill dam on the Walawe river near Balangoda, built for hydropower. Water released below a dam of that kind moves faster and far less predictably than the still surface of the reservoir above it, and the flow can change without warning when discharge is adjusted.
Drownings during school and temple excursions are a persistent cause of death in Sri Lanka. Police had recorded 122 drowning deaths by mid-June this year and have repeatedly warned about bathing at unfamiliar inland water bodies; the government has been working to set up a national drowning prevention mechanism since May. Recent cases include an 11-year-old novice monk in Heen Ganga at Meemure in September.
Not reported
Neither outlet names the student or his school, says how many students or staff were on the trip, or says whether teachers were present when the three went to the water. Neither reports the time of the incident, how long the search took, or whether the spot carries any warning against bathing.
