Seven reservoirs were spilling across Sri Lanka on Monday afternoon and the Victoria Reservoir — the largest in the Mahaweli chain — is nearing its maximum capacity, the Irrigation Department said. By late afternoon the National Building Research Organisation had raised six areas of the Ratnapura district to a Level 3 landslide warning, the grade at which residents are told to leave.
By Monday night the picture had worsened on three counts: the NBRO issued landslide red notices across three districts, Kala Wewa passed 103 per cent of its capacity with both emergency gates open, and an eighth reservoir — Inginimitiya — joined the list. Those developments are set out in the updates below.
The Department of Irrigation says several reservoirs are spilling because of continuing heavy rainfall, NewsFirst reported at 2.11 p.m.
Where the water is going
| Reservoir | Gates open | Discharging into |
|---|---|---|
| Polgolla (Mahaweli) | 2, opened Monday morning | Victoria Reservoir |
| Kukule Ganga | 2, opened early Monday | Kuda Ganga |
| Ibbankatuwa (Dambulla) | 1, opened Monday morning | Dambulu Oya → Kala Wewa, at 100 cusecs |
| Kala Wewa | 2, opened six inches each | — |
| Deduru Oya | all 8 remain open | Deduru Oya river |
| Rajanganaya | 8 | — |
| Thabbowa | 8 (four at two feet, four at one foot) | Mee Oya, at 2,640 cusecs |
The Thabbowa figures come from the Daily Mirror, which reported at 3.40 p.m. that 2,640 cubic feet of water per second is being released into the Mee Oya. Irrigation Department Director (Water Management) Eng. H.M.P.S.D. Herath said four spillway gates had been opened by two feet each and another four by one foot each to manage the inflow. Residents living downstream of the reservoir and along the banks of the Mee Oya were urged to watch for changes in river levels and to follow Irrigation Department and disaster management announcements.
That filing closes a gap this desk has recorded as open for several days. Earlier reservoir filings in this spell gave gate counts without a discharge rate or per-gate opening heights; Monday’s gives all three, together with a downstream advisory.
Rajanganaya is back to eight gates
The Rajanganaya figure is the one to watch, because it has now reversed twice.
The reservoir ran eight gates at its peak last week, came down to two on Sunday evening as the rain eased, reopened to six on Monday morning, and is now back to eight. An easing recorded in the morning did not hold through the afternoon.
A caution on reading these numbers: a gate count describes how the discharge is distributed, not how much water is moving. Deduru Oya was releasing 16,500 cusecs on 21 October and roughly 5,300 cusecs on 26 October — with eight gates open on both occasions. Thabbowa’s eight gates, opened to two different heights, make the same point within a single reservoir.
Victoria is filling
The most consequential line in Monday’s reporting is not a gate count. The engineer in charge of the Victoria Reservoir says it is nearing its maximum capacity, while Polgolla upstream is passing more water into it.
Victoria is the largest reservoir in the Mahaweli system and the country’s biggest hydroelectric store. The Irrigation Department issued a minor flood warning for the Mahaweli at 1.06 p.m. on Monday covering the Pasbage Korale division in the Kandy district, on the basis of heavy rain in the river’s upper catchment.
Level 3: Ratnapura told to evacuate
The NBRO has issued a Level 3 (evacuation) early warning for landslides covering Ratnapura, Ayagama, Pelmadulla, Kuruwita, Elapatha and Opanayake, Hiru News reported at 4.01 p.m.
A Level 2 (be alert) warning covers the Kalutara, Kandy, Kegalle, Kurunegala and Nuwara Eliya districts.
These areas are not a separate emergency from the flooding. Five of the six Level 3 areas — Ratnapura, Ayagama, Pelmadulla, Kuruwita and Elapatha — were also named on Monday morning in the Irrigation Department’s minor flood warning for the Kalu Ganga basin. The same rainfall over the same catchment is now producing two distinct hazards in the same divisions: rising water in the low ground and slope instability above it. NBRO adds Opanayake to the list; the flood warning named Nivithigala, which NBRO does not.
Update, Monday evening: red notices, and the first landslide on the ground
The warning has escalated twice since the Level 3 notice above, and a landslide has now actually occurred.
Red notices across three districts
The National Building Research Organisation has issued landslide red notices for areas of the Kalutara, Nuwara Eliya and Ratnapura districts, Hiru News reported at 7.29 p.m. Colombo time, citing an updated NBRO notice.
The notice covers:
| District | Areas |
|---|---|
| Kalutara | Bulathsinhala and Dodangoda divisional secretariat divisions |
| Nuwara Eliya | Ambagamuwa Korale and Norwood divisional secretariat divisions |
| Ratnapura | the district |
Residents in the affected areas are told to stay alert to the landslide risk.
This is a widening, not just a restatement. The 4.01 p.m. Level 3 warning named six areas, all within the Ratnapura district, and put Kalutara and Nuwara Eliya only at Level 2 — “be alert”. By evening both had been raised to red notices in named divisions. Bulathsinhala and Dodangoda in particular sit in the lower Kalu Ganga catchment, where the Irrigation Department had already issued a minor flood warning that morning; those divisions are now under both a flood warning and a landslide red notice.
A landslide on the Balangoda–Ratnapura road
A landslide has blocked part of the Balangoda–Ratnapura main road at Ellepola, disrupting traffic, Hiru reported at 7.20 p.m. Earth and rock fell onto the road in the heavy rain, according to the outlet’s correspondent.
This is the first landslide this desk has recorded as having actually occurred in the current spell, as against being warned of. It falls inside the Ratnapura district, which was already at Level 3 and is now under a red notice.
A note on the acronym
Hiru’s Sinhala text renders the organisation’s acronym as “NBRI”. The body names it in full as ජාතික ගොඩනැගිලි පර්යේෂණ සංවිධානය — the National Building Research Organisation, whose acronym is NBRO. This report uses NBRO.
Update, Monday night: Kala Wewa over capacity, and the Mee Oya discharge rises again
Two further filings late on Monday put Kala Wewa above its own capacity, added an eighth reservoir to the list, and raised Thabbowa’s discharge by two-thirds in six hours.
Kala Wewa passes 100 per cent
Kala Wewa’s two emergency spillway gates were opened by four feet each at about 7 p.m. on Monday as inflows kept rising, Hiru News reported at 8.55 p.m.
By nightfall the reservoir held 87,037 acre-feet — 103.04 per cent of its capacity — with 7,390 cubic feet per second flowing in and the reservoir still spilling. The gate opening releases 2,640 cusecs into the Kala Oya.
The Kala Wewa–Aukana road is submerged near the Aukana temple, disrupting traffic.
These three figures together — a storage volume, a percentage of capacity and an inflow rate — are the first this desk has obtained for any of the reservoirs in this spell, and they close the gap recorded below. They also show why a gate count alone is not enough: Kala Wewa is taking in 7,390 cusecs and letting out 2,640, so it is still filling even with both emergency gates open four feet.
Thabbowa rises from 2,640 to 4,400 cusecs, and Inginimitiya joins it
The Inginimitiya and Thabbowa reservoirs are together releasing 7,400 cusecs into the Mee Oya, the Daily Mirror reported at 9.44 p.m., citing Irrigation Department Director (Water Management) Eng. H.M.P.S.D. Herath — the same official quoted on Thabbowa earlier in the day.
| Reservoir | Gates | Into the Mee Oya |
|---|---|---|
| Inginimitiya | 2 at two feet, 2 at one foot | 3,000 cusecs |
| Thabbowa | 4 at two feet, 4 at three feet | 4,400 cusecs |
| Combined | 7,400 cusecs |
Thabbowa’s discharge has risen from 2,640 cusecs to 4,400 in about six hours. At 3.40 p.m. its eight gates were open four at two feet and four at one foot; by 9.44 p.m. the second four had been raised to three feet. The gate count did not change — their height did.
Inginimitiya is new to this account, taking the number of reservoirs reported discharging or spilling from seven to eight.
Herath again urged residents downstream of both reservoirs and along the banks of the Mee Oya to watch for changes in water level, to follow announcements about spill-gate openings, and to act on Irrigation Department and disaster management instructions.
A coincidence worth flagging
Thabbowa’s earlier discharge into the Mee Oya and Kala Wewa’s discharge into the Kala Oya are both reported as 2,640 cusecs. They are separate figures, from different outlets, for different reservoirs on different rivers at different times of day, and the Thabbowa figure has since been superseded. The repetition appears to be coincidence and is recorded here so it is not later mistaken for a single number applied twice.
Not reported
On the red notices: neither filing states what a “red notice” means in the NBRO’s published warning scale, or how it maps onto the numbered Level 1–3 system used in the earlier warning — so it cannot be said from these sources whether a red notice is equivalent to Level 3, above it, or a separate classification. No expiry time is given. The Ratnapura entry names the whole district without listing divisions, where Kalutara and Nuwara Eliya are given by division.
On the Ellepola landslide: no casualty or damage count is given, the road is not said to be fully or partly blocked, and no clearance estimate or diversion is reported. The report is attributed to Hiru’s own correspondent rather than to the Road Development Authority or police.
Updated. The two afternoon reservoir filings gave no water level, percentage of capacity or inflow rate for any reservoir. Monday night’s filings supply all three for Kala Wewa (87,037 acre-feet, 103.04 per cent, 7,390 cusecs inflow), and discharge rates for Kala Wewa, Thabbowa and Inginimitiya. They remain unreported for Polgolla, Kukule Ganga, Deduru Oya, Rajanganaya and Victoria, so how close those five are to their limits still cannot be judged. Victoria’s position is described only as “nearing” maximum capacity, with no figure and no stated threshold.
No filing states Kala Wewa’s absolute capacity in acre-feet; the 103.04 per cent figure implies roughly 84,500 acre-feet, but that is this desk’s arithmetic from the two reported numbers and is not given by any source. Nor does any filing say how long Kala Wewa has been above capacity, or what the consequence of exceeding it is.
The Kukule Ganga and Ibbankatuwa openings have no accompanying downstream advisory in either filing, and no divisional secretariat divisions are named for the Kuda Ganga or the Dambulu Oya.
The NBRO warning as reported carries no expiry time and no evacuation instruction beyond the warning level itself. Neither filing reports evacuations carried out, displacement, damage or casualties, and none says whether the Level 3 areas have been visited by disaster management officers.
