The Department of Irrigation has issued minor flood warnings for low-lying areas along both the Nilwala and Gin rivers, covering 12 divisional secretariat divisions over the next 24 hours after heavy rainfall pushed water levels up.
Nilwala basin
Residents in low-lying areas along the Nilwala in the Pasgoda, Kotapola, Pitabeddara, Akuressa, Athuraliya, Malimbada, Kamburupitiya and Tihagoda divisional secretariat divisions have been urged to remain highly vigilant, Hiru News reported.
Gin basin
A separate warning covers the Tawalama, Nagoda, Baddegama and Welivitiya-Divithura divisions along the Gin River, where the department has asked residents to stay vigilant.
The weather behind it
The Meteorology Department said on Tuesday evening that the deep depression over the west-central and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal was likely to move west-northwestwards and cross the coastal areas of northern Andhra Pradesh and southern Odisha in India overnight, the Daily Mirror reported.
The system will not strike Sri Lanka directly, the department said, but rainy conditions in the island’s southwest are expected to continue because of the wind flow running toward it.
Showers or thundershowers were forecast at times in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central and North-western provinces and in the Galle and Matara districts, with falls above 100 mm likely in places — the catchments feeding both rivers now under warning. Strong winds of 40-50 kmph were expected at times over the western slopes of the central hills, the North-central and North-western provinces and in Trincomalee, Hambantota and Matale.
The warnings follow a run of wet-zone flood alerts this month, including school closures in the Kuda Ganga basin and red landslide warnings across six districts.
Not reported
Neither outlet gives the recorded gauge readings behind the warnings, names the gauging stations, or says whether any evacuations or road closures have followed.
