Bowatenna Reservoir

Bowatenna Reservoir (Photo credit: Akila Wasala, Google Street View)

Bowatenna Reservoir (Sinhala: බෝවතැන්න ජලාශය; Tamil: போவத்தென்னை அணை) is a reservoir situated in Matale District, Sri Lanka.

History

The restoration work of the Bowatenna reservoir was commenced in 1973 and completed in 1976 (Abeyawardana, 2004). The project comprised a concrete gravity dam, a power tunnel, a power station and an irrigation diversion tunnel (Hewavisenthi, 1992).

The reservoir

After completing the Polgolla embankment under the Mahaweli Development Scheme, the waters of the Mahaweli Ganga river were diverted to the Amban Ganga river basin through an underground tunnel to the Ukuwela hydropower plant and the water discharged from this plant is finally reached through Dun Oya and Sudu Ganga to the Bowatenna reservoir (Abeyawardana, 2004; Nandalal & Ampitiya, 1997). The main purpose of the Bowatenna reservoir is to regulate these diverted waters for the irrigation systems H, IH and MH (Hewavisenthi, 1992; Nandalal & Ampitiya, 1997).

The storing water of the reservoir is discharged into the Kala Oya river basin, and is released downstream through the Bowatenna Power Station (Abeyawardana, 2004). The tanks fed by the waters of this reservoir include Kandalama Wewa, Hurulu Wewa, Kala Wewa, Nachchaduwa Wewa, Rajanganaya Wewa, Angamuwa Wewa, and Siyambalangamuwa Wewa (Abeyawardana, 2004).

The dam of the reservoir is 326 m (1,070 ft.) in length and 29.6 m (97.11 ft.) in height (Abeyawardana, 2004; Hewavisenthi, 1992). The maximum water capacity is 52 MCM while the minimum is 17.1 MCM (Nandalal & Ampitiya, 1997). The hydropower plant installed at the reservoir generates and releases 40 MW of electricity to the national grid (Abeyawardana, 2004; Hewavisenthi, 1992).