Gregory Lake, also called Gregory Wewa (Sinhala: ග්රෙගරි වැව), is a small man-made tank located in the middle of Nuwara Eliya town in Sri Lanka. The lake is considered one of the foremost tourist attractions in the town.
Nuwara Eliya is a hill town surrounded by some of the highest mountains in the country such as Pidurutalagala (2,524 m), Kikiliyamana (2,240 m), Hakgala (2,170 m), One Tree Hill (2,100 m), etc. (Meemeduma, 1992). The Gregory Lake situated in the middle of the town has been named after its creator Sir William Gregory, the British Governor of Ceylon from 1872 to 1877. (Meemeduma, 1992). Nanu Oya, a stream that originates from Pidurutalagala mountain acts as the main tributary of the lake (Magana-Arachchi et al., 2011).
The Lake
The lake is belonged to the wet montane zone of Sri Lanka and has been extended in an area of about 0.4 square km with a perimeter of about 3.5 km (Magana-Arachchi et al., 2011). The lake receives an average rainfall of 2000-2500 mm rainfall with a mean annual temperature of 16 °C. (Magana-Arachchi et al., 2011). Being an important wetland ecosystem with high bio-diversity, an attractive tourism destination with natural scenic beauty, a water source for agricultural purposes and a threatened ecosystem (due to water pollution by discharges of urban and agricultural run-off and the spread of invasive floral species), the Lake Gregory has been declared as an Environmental Protection Area by a gazette notification published on 5 March 2007.
A Protected Site
The sluice gate of the Gregory Wewa situated in the Grama Niladhari Division No. 435-B, Kalukele in the Divisional Secretary’s Division of Nuwara Eliya is an archaeological protected monument, declared by a government gazette notification published on 6 February 2009.
References
1) Magana-Arachchi, D., Wanigatunge, R. and Liyanage, M., 2011. Molecular characterization of cyanobacterial diversity in Lake Gregory, Sri Lanka. Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 29(4), pp.898-904.
2) Meemeduma, D., 1992. Rehabilitation of Lake Gregory, Sri Lanka. [Blain, W.R. (ed.)]. Marina Technology: Proceedings of the Second International Conference, Held in Southampton, UK, 31 March-2 April 1992. Thomas Telford. pp.111-112.
3) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, no: 1487/10. 5 March 2007.
4) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, no: 1588. 6 February 2009. p.182.