Ulhitiya Reservoir, in Badulla on the edge of Maduru Oya National Park, was built in the 1980s under the Mahaweli Development Project.
Ulhitiya Reservoir U lhitiya Reservoir (Sinhala: උල්හිටිය ජලාශය) is a storage reservoir situated on the south-western margin of the Maduru Oya National Park in Badulla District, Sri Lanka. It is the largest reservoir in the northern region of the district spreading over one Divisional Secretariat (Wickremasinghe et al., 2018). It is maintained by Mahaweli Development Authority (Wickremasinghe et al., 2018). The reservoir is surrounded by Rathkinda Reservoir to the north, Maduru Oya Reservoir to the northeast and Sorabora Wewa to the southwest. History In the 1970’s, a major irrigation-based multipurpose development program called Mahaweli Development Project was initiated with the aim of generating hydropower and irrigation facilities to dry zone areas and under this mega project, number of dams and reservoirs were constructed (Rajakaruna et al., 2019). As part of this program, an earthfilled dam was constructed across the Ulhitiya Oya, a right bank tributary of the Mahaweli Ganga River . The project was ini…