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Labugama Tank, water treatment plant and the bungalow in the forest |
Labugama Reservoir (Sinhala: ලබුගම ජලාශය) is a storage reservoir situated in the Labugama-Kalatuwawa Forest Reserve in Colombo District, Sri Lanka. It was built by impounding the flow of the Wak Oya for water supply for domestic consumption in Colombo City (Arumugam, 1969). The reservoir along with the nearby Kalatuwawa Reservoir is maintained by the Colombo Municipal Council. The water treatment plant at the site is considered the first such plant established (1882) in the country.
History
The Labugama weir was constructed by the British Colonial Government in 1882 (Kotalawala, 2017). The construction work of the tank was completed in 1886 (Arumugam, 1969).
The Reservoir
Labugama Reservoir is one of the tanks in the Kelani Ganga basin. Except for the drainage from its own catchment area, the tank is mainly fed by the Wak Oya (Arumugam, 1969). The storage capacity is 1960 million gallons and the area of water spread is 205 acres at its full supply level (Arumugam, 1969).
The weir of the reservoir is 26.5 m high and 150 m long (Kotalawala, 2017). The greatest depth of the reservoir is 22.5 m (Kotalawala, 2017).
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References
Books, Government Gazette Notifications, Journal Articles
1) Arumugam, S., 1969. Water resources of Ceylon: its utilisation and development. Water Resources Board. p.46.
2) Kotalawala, A.B., 2017. Impact of weirs on fish fauna of Wak-Oya, a tributary of the Kelani River. Journal of the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka, 22(1). pp.65-86.