6,000 Farmers to Benefit by Rehabilitation of Largest Tank in Northern Sri Lanka

06th March 2010, www.dailynews.lk, By Anura Maitipe

The Northern Re-awakening Project has taken initiatives to rehabilitate Iranamadu Tank at a cost of Rs. 200 million with World Bank assistance to provide irrigation facilities to resettled families in the Kilinochchi district, Project Director PH Sugathadasa said.

The tank located in the Northern part of the district is the main irrigation tank in the province.

earlier it had provided irrigation facilities to over 8,000 hectares under gravity irrigation and another 455 hectares under lift irrigation system.

However, the war situation had caused severe damage to this tank. As a result the cultivatable land extent of this tank has reduced from 8,455 to 3,000 hectares, he said. This tank originally built by the Dutch with a capacity of 49 million cubic meters of water (MCM) was taken over by the Irrigation Department. The Department has increased the tank capacity to 131 MCM in three stages, he added.

The rehabilitation work will commence soon.

Over 6,000 farmer families in Kilinochchi will benefit. It will also be a permanent solution for the drinking water problem of the Jaffna Peninsula, he noted.