22 December 2020 12:00 am
By Yohan Perera
A team of foreign experts is scheduled to arrive in the country next year to assure the stability of the Victoria Dam which is maintained according to international standards, Mahaweli Zones Canals and Settlements Infrastructure Development State Minister, Siripala Gamlath said yesterday.
He said all the arrangements had already been made for the team to visit the country.
“The Engineers and the technical officers attached to Sri Lanka Mahaweli Authority who have been using modern equipment to monitor the stability of the dam round the clock quoted as saying that no effect has caused whatsoever to the dam consequent to the recent earth tremors occurred in several surrounding areas of Digana,” Minister Gamlath said.
The State Minister was addressing the media after engaging in an inspection tour of the Dam on December 19.
State Minister Gamlath inspected all the monitoring machines including the robots that were installed to obtain information about the functions and the stability of the dam and the seismometers.
Later, addressing a media briefing held at the Main Dam and Reservoir Operation Centre of the Sri Lanka Mahaweli Authority at Polgolla, the State Minister quoted the engineers in charge of the dam as saying that the stability of the Victoria Dam is affirmed 100%, and no effect has caused to the dam by the recent earth tremors occurred in the surroundings of the dam.
“The maintenance of the Dam has been conducted properly according to the international standards and an expert team in the field is expected to visit the island next week to assess the stability of reservoirs of Victoria, Randenigala, Kotmale and Senanayake Samudraya, State Minister Gamlath said. Victoria Dam has been built with earthquake resistance and, none of the recent earth tremors that caused in the surroundings of Digana has outdone the maximum limit of such resistance. Nor did such tremors even reach the limit,” the State Minister said. State Minister reiterated that if similar earth tremors occur with the seismic power increased in ten times of the recent earth tremors that would not affect the Dam.
“Experienced Engineers with the support of a technical team have been monitoring the Dam and the Victoria Dam has been modernised under the Dam Protection Project three years ago, the minister said.