The Department of Irrigation has extended the flood warning for the Kuda Ganga sub-basin of the Kalu River for a further 48 hours, keeping an alert in force that has now run for five days.
The department said the warning — first issued at 9.30 a.m. on September 20 — was being extended because of the conditions prevailing in the area, the Daily Mirror reported.
Residents of low-lying parts of the sub-basin have been urged to stay vigilant and take precautions. The department also told motorists to exercise extreme caution on roads running through the affected areas, particularly secondary and rural routes, where the flooding risk is highest.
What the original warning covered
The alert was triggered by heavy rainfall in the sub-basin’s upstream catchments. An analysis of rainfall and of water levels at hydrological stations along the Kalu Ganga pointed to a minor flood risk in low-lying ground along both the Kuda Ganga and the Maguru Ganga valleys, with the areas at risk falling inside the Bulathsinhala, Madurawala and Palinda Nuwara divisional secretariat divisions, Newswire reported. The department warned then that roads crossing the two rivers’ floodplains could be inundated.
A fifth day of alerts
The Kuda Ganga has been under warning since the start of last weekend’s wet spell. It reached minor flood level on September 21, when the alert was first extended — by 24 hours — and 38 schools closed across the affected districts.
The same rainfall is driving warnings elsewhere in the wet zone. The department issued fresh minor flood warnings for the Nilwala and Gin basins covering 12 divisional secretariat divisions in Matara and Galle, while the Maussakele and Castlereagh reservoirs are closing on spill level under red landslide warnings in the central hills.
Not reported
Neither report gives the current gauge readings behind the extension, names the hydrological stations, or says whether any roads have already been closed or households displaced. No verified outlet has published a figure for how many people live in the at-risk divisions.
