A 22-year-old man has died after drowning while bathing in Galpoththahena Lake in the Eheliyagoda area, police said.
The dead man has been identified as a resident of the Meegahawatta area, according to Ada Derana, which reported the death on Sunday morning.
Preliminary investigations found that he had been bathing in the lake with four of his friends when the incident occurred. Eheliyagoda Police are conducting further investigations.
Eheliyagoda is in the Ratnapura District of Sabaragamuwa Province. Police did not release the man’s name, and the report did not state at what time the drowning occurred or whether the four others required treatment.
Drowning remains a persistent toll
Inland drownings during recreational bathing are among the most common accidental deaths recorded in Sri Lanka, and they fall overwhelmingly on young men.
Police Spokesman F.U. Wootler said in June that Sri Lanka had recorded 122 drowning deaths in the first months of 2026 — 113 men and nine women. That followed 595 drowning deaths in 2024 and 376 in 2025, a rolling three-year total of more than 1,000 lives.
Wootler urged the public at the time to avoid bathing in unfamiliar inland waters, where depth, currents and submerged obstacles are difficult to judge from the bank. Similar warnings have followed a series of incidents this year, including three deaths in the Deduru Oya at Kobeygane and a death off Moragalla in Aluthgama.
Ada Derana was the only verified newsroom carrying this report when the article was filed at midday on Sunday. Neither Hiru News nor the Daily Mirror had published an account of the incident at that stage.
