Gal Oya

Gal Oya (Sinhala: ගල් ඔය; Tamil: கல் ஆறு) is a river in southeast Sri Lanka. Flowing about 108 km distance, it is the 16th longest river in the country (Withanage et al., 2014). It originates in the hill country east of Badulla, flows towards the east coast of Sri Lanka and joins the Indian Ocean 16 km south of Kalmune (Withanage et al., 2014).

The Gal Oya river is the main source feeding the Gal Oya scheme, the first major irrigation project undertaken by independent Sri Lanka that dammed the Gal Oya at Bintenne and other smaller rivers to create Senanayaka Samudraya, the largest reservoir in the country (Gunawardena, 2003; Withanage et al., 2014).

The Gal Oya river basin extending in an area of about 1,873 km² is the 44th basin among the named 103 major river basins in Sri Lanka (Withanage et al., 2014). A number of reservoirs are situated in this river basin (Withanage et al., 2014).

#) Alahena Wewa                              #) Aligalge Wewa                              #) Ampara Wewa  

#) Chadayanthalawa Wewa            #) Ekgal Oya Wewa                           #) Eragama Wewa

#) Gal Oya Anicut                              #) Himidurawa Wewa                       #) Konduwatuwana Wewa

#) Malayadi Wewa                            #) Namal Oya Wewa                         #) Pallan Oya Wewa

#) Senanayaka Samudraya             #) Walathapitiya Wewa                     #) Weeragoda Wewa

#) Rivers of Sri Lanka

1) Arumugam, S., 1969. Water resources of Ceylon: its utilisation and development. Water Resources Board. pp.162-178.
2) Gunawardena, C.A., 2003. Encyclopedia of Sri Lanka. Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd. ISBN: 81-207-2536-0. p.122.
3) Withanage, N.S., Dayawansa, N.D.K. and De Silva, R.P., 2014. Morphometric analysis of the Gal Oya River Basin using spatial data derived from GIS. Trop Agric Res, 26(1), pp.175-188.

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This page was last updated on 23 April 2023