Heavy rain over the Central Province has pushed the Mahaweli River over its banks, submerging a bridge repair site at Peradeniya and flooding sixteen houses at Nawalapitiya, authorities said on Saturday.
Two backhoe machines brought in to repair the historic Peradeniya bridge over the Mahaweli were left underwater after the river rose sharply. Hiru News reported that the construction site is completely submerged, and that the river level climbed following heavy rain that had been falling since Friday night. Daily Mirror said excavators, construction equipment and other materials at the work site beneath the bridge were left partially underwater, and that repair operations have come to a standstill.
Authorities are expected to assess the damage to the machinery once floodwaters recede. No injuries have been reported.
The bridge was damaged in the Cyclone Ditwah disaster and is one of the structures in the long-running post-Ditwah restoration programme. The two newsrooms use different English names for it: Hiru News calls it the Peradeniya Kalu Palama, or Black Bridge, while Daily Mirror refers to it as the historic Devil’s Bridge.
Homes evacuated at Nawalapitiya
Sixteen houses at Kitulkotte in Nawalapitiya have been inundated, NewsFirst reported, citing the Disaster Management Centre. Residents of those houses have been temporarily moved to safe locations. Flooding was also reported in a low-lying area near the Mahaweli.
The Irrigation Department said Mahaweli water levels are rising at Peradeniya because of the rainfall. The department repeated its warning that a minor flood situation could develop within the next 48 hours in low-lying areas along the Kelani River, particularly in the Dehiowita, Ruwanwella and Seethawaka Divisional Secretariat divisions, following rain in the Kelani basin’s upper and middle catchments.
Daily Mirror said water levels have risen in several rivers across the Central Province, with the public urged to stay alert and avoid flooded areas.
Part of a wider wet spell
The flooding follows the Met Department’s Amber advisory for heavy rain, which forecasts rainfall above 100 mm in the Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-Western provinces and in the Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Galle and Matara districts until 6.00 a.m. on Sunday. Kandy district contains both Peradeniya and Nawalapitiya.
The same system has driven a minor flood warning for the Kelani basin and the opening of Canyon Reservoir spill gates, and has produced dangerous conditions at sea, where three fishing boats foundered off Negombo on Saturday morning, killing one fisherman.
