Permanent reconstruction of the Badulu Oya major irrigation project in Kandaketiya, Badulla District, began on Tuesday under a Rs. 324.43 million allocation, six months after Cyclone Ditwah caused severe damage to the scheme.
The project, which irrigates 1,775 acres of farmland, had collapsed at several points during the November 2025 cyclone, Newswire reported. Temporary repairs were carried out under Irrigation Department supervision with support from local farmers, civil organisations and the tri-forces, allowing water releases to resume from January 2026 to sustain cultivation until permanent works could begin.
Authorities said the new reconstruction will provide stable, long-term relief for farming communities in the area and strengthen the scheme against future disaster risk.
The Badulu Oya restart follows a string of recently announced Ditwah-recovery commitments, including the Cabinet’s empowerment package for cyclone-affected districts and earlier presidential pledges to resettle Kandy district displaced residents and to complete Matale district projects worth Rs.500 billion by year-end. The president had previously set a June deadline for coordinated Badulla recovery work.
Cyclone Ditwah remains the costliest natural disaster on record in Sri Lanka, with infrastructure damage running into the hundreds of billions of rupees and displacement still being addressed across the central highlands and east.
