6 November 2017 11:04 am
Iranamadu Component of Jaffna, Kilinochchi Water Supply and Sanitation Project is a project initiated to strengthen and augment the Iranamadu reservoir; a part of which could be used for Jaffna drinking water supply without affecting the benefits of the rightful farmers under the Iranamadu Irrigation Scheme.
The Iranamadu component of the project is phased out in to several packages. The package II - Rehabilitation of Spillway, Supplying and Installation of New Radial Gates and Automation of Spill and Sluice Gates which was awarded to Access Engineering PLC by the Northern Provincial Council is now nearing completion.
Iranamadu reservoir which was supposedly constructed in the year 1921 has been in despair due to the lack of maintenance and destruction caused over the three decades of civil war. It presently serves a command area of 8,455 ha of paddy cultivation with a water volume of 131.3 million cubic-metres which could be improved to 148.1 million cubic-metres.
The scope of work awarded to Access Engineering PLC under the package II includes improving the spillway of the reservoir with remodeling of stilling basin and installation of three new radial gates, improving the 11 exiting gates of the spillway and supplying electric power for their operations.
“Undertaking the rehabilitation work of the existing structure and the new construction work, with minimum disturbance to the existing structure was pretty challenging to all of us. Therefore a special concentration had to be placed for the demolition of the parts of the existing structure which was thus handled manually consuming extensive labour and time,” said Iranamadu Component – Package II Project Manager Diwantha Shihan.
Once rehabilitated, the reservoir will store water at its optimum capacity which otherwise stores four to five feet below the full supply level. While a part of the incremental volume of the rehabilitated reservoir will be diverted to Jaffna to supply potable drinking water, the rest will be used for the benefit of 7,000 farmer families. Also upon the rehabilitation, the irrigation system around the communities will be in full deployment during the main two seasons and sandwich crops will be grown during the off seasons.