Mahaweli Development Project Mahaweli Development Project (Sinhala: මහවැලි සංවර්ධන ව්යාපෘතිය) is the largest irrigation-based multipurpose development program in Sri Lanka to date and one of the largest agriculture-related programs in the world (Gunatilake, 1991; Paranage, 2019). Carried out on water resources of the Mahaweli Ganga and allied six river basins, the project was mainly implemented in North-Central Sri Lanka, covering a large part of the country's dry zone (Azmi, 2007; Mahaweli Statistical Hand Book, 2021). The project's main purposes included reducing rural unemployment, decreasing population pressure in the wet zone, providing land for landless farmers, achieving self-sufficiency in paddy production, reducing poverty, and generating hydropower. The Master Plan Mahaweli Ganga is the longest river in the country and it conveys the largest volume of water in Sri Lanka amounting to one-seventh of the total runoff (Hewavisenthi, 1992). Its basin which extends in an area of about 10,320 km 2 is equ…
