Three reservoirs in the south are spilling as the current spell of wet weather continues, the Irrigation Department has announced, with residents downstream warned to watch for rising water levels.
Several spill gates at the Lunugamvehera reservoir in the Kirindi Oya river basin have been opened, along with those at the Alikota Ara and Maw Ara reservoirs, Hiru News reported at 9.09 a.m. on Thursday.
How much water is being released
At Lunugamvehera, two spill gates have been opened four inches each and a further four gates six inches each — six gates in total. Through them, close to 3,000 cubic feet per second is being discharged into the Kirindi Oya.
Alikota Ara, in the same basin, is also spilling, and the additional water from its gates is likewise flowing into the Kirindi Oya.
Maw Ara is spilling separately, with a discharge the department puts at more than 1,500 cubic feet per second.
The warning
The Irrigation Department asked people living below the spilling reservoirs to pay continuous attention to the announcements its disaster management units issue on gate openings and water levels.
It separately flagged the Walawe basin, saying it is important that people living close to the river below the reservoirs there watch for rising water levels in the Walawe Ganga.
Context
The releases come during a wet spell that has already produced flooding in Colombo, landslide advisories across several districts and a precautionary opening of the Kotmale spill gates earlier this week. The Department of Meteorology has warned of rainfall above 100mm in parts of the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central, Southern and Uva provinces.
Not reported
The filing gives no reservoir water levels, no percentage of capacity, and no indication of how long the gates will stay open. It names no official. It does not say whether any downstream area has been evacuated or inundated, or whether the Disaster Management Centre has issued a separate warning for the Kirindi Oya valley.
A search of other verified newsrooms for this event returned only older reservoir-spill stories — including a Daily Mirror report on twelve reservoirs spilling and separate May 2026 filings — none of them this week’s. One search summary asserted that ten Lunugamvehera gates had been opened; that figure appears in none of the fetched reporting and contradicts the Irrigation Department’s own six-gate breakdown above, so it is not used here. This article is single-source pending corroboration.