Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2021-08-23

Renovation of the Samanalawewa Tank Bund

- The construction activities of the Samanalawewa Power Plant Project with the capacity of 120MW was commenced in the year 1986 and filling the reservoir was carried out in the year 1992. It was identified a water leakage at the reservoir in the same year and even though a number of studies have been conducted in this regard, it has not been possible to detect the exact way of water leakage. The volume of the reservoir has been limited only to 288 million cubic meters due to the said water leakage. Therefore, the expected annual electricity generation capacity of 405 Gwh of the Samanalawewa Power Plant has been reduced by around 70GWh. It has been recognized that there is a layer of limestone which is highly degraded and porous, possible water leakage in the right bank of the reservoir and it has been clear that there is a possibility of further widening of the water leakage way leading to a disastrous situation. Taking into consideration these matters and examining the previous remedial measures, approval of the Cabinet was granted to implement the project which has been presented by the Ceylon Electricity Board, to seal the places of water leakage by using the appropriate raw materials, after removing the water from the reservoir totally and examining the same completely.