The Irrigation Department issued a minor flood warning on Monday for low-lying areas along the Kalu Ganga, naming six divisional secretariat divisions in the Ratnapura district and seven in Kalutara. Just over an hour later it warned of a minor flood risk on the Mahaweli as well. The Education Ministry has given provincial officials the power to close schools where the rain makes it impossible to hold them.
The Kalu Ganga warning was issued at 11.30 a.m. on Monday and runs until 11.30 a.m. on Tuesday, Hiru News reported. A minor flood is likely in low-lying areas of the basin within the next 24 hours as heavy rainfall continues over the river’s catchment, the Daily Mirror reported.
The Daily Mirror adds the basis for the warning: the department issued it on prevailing rainfall conditions together with water levels recorded at the river gauging stations it maintains — a measured trigger rather than a forecast alone.
The thirteen divisions
The two filings name the same divisions, in the same order, with no discrepancy between them.
| District | Divisions named |
|---|---|
| Ratnapura | Pelmadulla, Nivithigala, Ratnapura, Kuruwita, Ayagama, Elapatha |
| Kalutara | Ingiriya, Horana, Dodangoda, Millaniya, Bulathsinhala, Madurawala, Palindanuwara |
Residents of these areas and motorists travelling through them have been told to remain vigilant and take precautions, and disaster management authorities have been asked to put precautionary measures in place.
This is the most precise geography published in the present spell. Earlier warnings named areas in broader terms — the 23 October filings listed Deduru Oya, Mahawa, Nikaweratiya, Chilaw, Bingiriya and Pallama — whereas Monday’s warning is pitched at divisional secretariat level and distinguishes between the two districts.
It does not, however, close the gap this desk has recorded as open in its running account of the weather. That gap concerns the divisions downstream of the four spilling reservoirs — Rajanganaya, Deduru Oya, Kalawewa and Thabbowa — and none of those sits on the Kalu Ganga. The areas named on Monday are at risk from rainfall in the Kalu Ganga’s own catchment, not from reservoir discharge.
The Mahaweli follows, in Kandy
At 1.06 p.m. the department issued a second warning, this time for the Mahaweli. A minor flood situation is possible in low-lying areas beside the river in the Pasbage Korale divisional secretariat division following heavy rainfall in the river’s upper catchment over the past few hours, the Daily Mirror reported. Pasbage Korale lies in the Kandy district of the Central Province, in the hill country through which the upper Mahaweli runs.
Disaster management authorities have again been asked to take precautionary measures, and residents living close to the river to remain vigilant. The public in the affected areas and motorists using nearby roads were urged to exercise extreme caution.
The two warnings together mark a shift in where this weather is doing its damage. The reservoir openings of the past week — Rajanganaya, Deduru Oya, Kalawewa, Thabbowa — were concentrated in the North Western and North Central districts. Monday’s warnings are for the south-western basin and the central hills, which is consistent with the Department of Meteorology’s expectation, reported on Monday morning, of heavier rain over the south-west.
Schools: the decision moves to the provinces
The Education Ministry says the power to decide whether schools can be held has been given to Provincial Education Secretaries and Provincial Directors of Education, where the prevailing heavy rain creates conditions in which schools cannot operate, Hiru News reported at 1.22 p.m.
Those officials will have full authority to decide whether to close schools temporarily or hold them, weighing the disaster situation in a given area, the flood risk, and road blockages.
This was a delegation of authority, not a closure. Hiru’s own English slug reads “provincial education authorities decide to close schools”, which would tell a reader that schools are shutting. The Sinhala body said the opposite in substance: the ministry had handed the decision down, and at that point no closure had been announced nationally.
Update, 4.20 p.m.: the ministry has since overtaken its own delegation. All schools island-wide will be closed on Tuesday, 27 October, with practical examinations for aesthetic subjects under the G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination still going ahead as scheduled. See All schools island-wide to close on Tuesday as heavy rain persists. The paragraph above describes the position as it stood at 1.22 p.m. and is left in place as a record of how the decision moved.
Close to 100 houses damaged at Iranawila
Separately, close to 100 houses have been damaged by a sudden strong wind at Iranawila in Mahawewa West, near Chilaw, according to the Mahawewa Divisional Secretary, Hiru reported at 1.57 p.m. The wind caused serious damage to the roofs of many houses and to buildings in the area. Work to restore the affected areas and provide relief to those affected is under way.
Hiru’s headline gives the figure as a flat 100; its body says close to 100, and this report follows the body.
Update, Monday evening: the warnings extend to the Kelani and the Attanagalu Oya
The Irrigation Department has issued two further flood warnings, taking the total to four basins and 29 divisional secretariat divisions. Both were reported by the Daily Mirror at 7.31 p.m. Colombo time and independently by Hiru News.
The Kelani River valley — minor flood warning, 24 hours
A minor flood warning covers low-lying areas of the Kelani River valley within the next 24 hours, in seven divisional secretariat divisions:
Ruwanwella · Seethawaka · Dompe · Dehiowita · Eheliyagoda · Yatiyantota · Bulathkohupitiya
The department says significant rainfall has been recorded in the upper catchment areas of the Kelani basin, raising the flood risk, as Hiru also reported at 6.33 p.m. It warns that continued heavy rainfall could also cause flooding downstream of Hanwella — which extends the exposure towards the Colombo district, below the seven named divisions.
The Attanagalu Oya and Uruwal Oya — flood risk, Gampaha
A separate warning covers low-lying areas of the Attanagalu Oya and Uruwal Oya valleys across nine divisional secretariat divisions, nearly all in the Gampaha district:
Divulapitiya · Mirigama · Attanagalla · Mahara · Gampaha · Minuwangoda · Ja-Ela · Katana · Wattala
Water levels in both waterways are rising because of significant rainfall in the upper and middle catchment areas, Hiru reported at 6.29 p.m. Residents of the affected areas and motorists using roads through them are urged to exercise extreme caution and remain vigilant.
The two outlets agree exactly on both division lists — all sixteen names, in both basins — which is worth recording given how often transliterated place-name lists diverge between a Sinhala and an English filing.
What the geography now shows
| Basin | Divisions | Districts | Issued |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kalu Ganga | 13 | Ratnapura, Kalutara | 11.30 a.m. |
| Mahaweli | 1 | Kandy | 1.06 p.m. |
| Kelani | 7 | Kegalle, Colombo, Gampaha, Ratnapura | ~6.30 p.m. |
| Attanagalu / Uruwal Oya | 9 | Gampaha | ~6.30 p.m. |
The warnings have moved steadily west and north through the day, from the Kalu Ganga in the morning to the Kelani and then the Attanagalu Oya by evening — tracking the Met Department’s forecast of heavier rain over the south-west. The Attanagalu Oya warning brings the belt immediately north of Colombo into the picture for the first time in this spell, covering Ja-Ela, Wattala and Mahara on the capital’s northern approaches.
This is a different pattern from the reservoir openings, which have been concentrated in the North Western and North Central districts and are covered in a separate report — which has also now recorded NBRO landslide red notices for parts of Kalutara, Nuwara Eliya and Ratnapura, and the first actual landslide of the spell.
Not reported
On the Kelani and Attanagalu Oya warnings: neither gives a river level, a gauge reading, a threshold or a rainfall total, so the margin to a flood cannot be judged in either basin. The Attanagalu Oya warning carries no validity period — it says “in the coming period” rather than naming 24 hours as the Kelani one does. Neither names the catchment rainfall figures described as “significant”, and neither reports evacuations, displacement, damage or casualties in any of the sixteen divisions. The Hanwella reference is a conditional extension rather than a warning in force, and no divisions below Hanwella are named.
Neither flood filing states the flood-risk thresholds at the Kalu Ganga or Mahaweli gauges, or the current readings, so the margin by which a minor flood is expected cannot be judged. Neither gives a river level, a discharge rate, or rainfall totals for the catchments. Neither reports evacuations, displacement or damage in the named divisions, and no casualty is reported in either basin.
The Mahaweli filing names a single division and does not say whether others downstream are being assessed, nor whether the warning carries the same 24-hour validity as the Kalu Ganga one — the Daily Mirror’s account gives no issue or expiry time for it.
The education filing does not say which provinces, if any, have used the new authority, when the instruction takes effect, or how closures will be communicated to parents. It gives no named official within the ministry.
The Iranawila report gives no injury count, does not say how many people have been displaced, and does not name the relief measures under way or the agency providing them. It does not record the wind speed or say whether the damage is connected to the same system driving the rain.
