Deduru Oya project, boon to NWP farmers

President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited the construction site of the Deduru Oya Reservoir Project yesterday.

The proposed project will redress long term grievances of the people of the area.

It will serve the lands in the Dry and Intermediate Zones of Kurunegala and Puttalam districts, where people suffer from water scarcity.

Benefits from the project will uplift the living conditions of the residents.

The reservoir will hold 75 million cubic metres of water after completion and provide irrigation facilities for 11,000 hectare acres of paddy lands in the Deduru and Mee Oya basins, benefiting about 15,000 farmer families.

The project envisages the construction of the following reservoir components:

Seventy percent of the construction of the Deduru Oya project has been completed. The total project will be complete by May 2013.

It will be possible to cultivate around 27,000 acres of paddy under the project.

The total estimated cost of the project is Rs 1,200 million.

Around 60 percent of construction of the south bund and 60 percent construction of the left bank sluice have been completed.

The project will provide drinking water to around 50,000 families. As a by-product, 1.5 MW of power will be generated and it will be the largest water project in the North Western Province. Ministers Nimala Siripala De Silva, S.B. Nawinna, T.B.Ekanayake, Johnston Fernando, and North Western chief minister Athula Wijesinghe were present.