Traffic on the Hatton–Colombo main road was blocked on Thursday evening after an earth slip at Kuyilwatte in Watawala brought soil and trees down onto the carriageway during heavy rain.
Residents and police were working to clear the debris and restore movement on the route, Hiru News reported, citing its correspondent. The report did not say how long the road was expected to remain closed, and no injuries were reported.
The slip came as the same wet spell forced schools in the area to close early. Education authorities in the Hatton zone sent pupils home ahead of schedule on Thursday because of the rainfall, and handed principals the decision on whether to open on Friday.
Context
The A7 between Hatton and Colombo climbs through steep, heavily cut hillside above Watawala, and it is among the most slip-prone stretches of the central highlands road network. The route has been blocked by earth slips at this same locality before.
The National Building Research Organisation has had red landslide warnings in force across the central hills during the current spell of rain, with reservoir levels in the catchment also under watch.
A note on sourcing: the locality appears in three spellings across the reporting — Hiru’s English copy renders it “Quailwatte,” its own URL gives “Kuilwatte,” and other outlets use “Kuyilwatte.” No other verified newsroom that could be date-checked had filed on the slip at the time of writing; Ada Derana, which carried a version, remains unreachable to us.
