Reservoir storage drops to 37% as dry spell intensifies

Storage levels across 74 major reservoirs managed by the Irrigation Department dropped to approximately 37% of total capacity, highlighting a growing climate and governance challenge. In the agricultural regions of the Dry Zone, water levels in 9 major reservoirs in Ampara fell to roughly 23%, while 4 key reservoirs in Batticaloa stood at 26%, and primary storage bodies in Trincomalee sat at 28%. Agricultural hubs such as Polonnaruwa and Hambantota reported depleted storage of 42% and 43% respectively.

Adding to this hydrological deficit, the Meteorological Department warned of caution-level heat indices between 39 and 45 degrees Celsius across eastern and northern districts, which accelerated surface evaporation from depleted water bodies. The practical consequences proved immediate, as the complete desiccation of the Kithuluthuwa tank in Hingurakgoda left 50 farming families without water and ruined over 50 acres of crops, while cultivators in Karambegama faced forced abandonment of their fields. Across rural districts, falling storage impaired drinking water supplies, damaged inland commercial fisheries, and deprived dairy cattle of essential hydration.

These widespread disruptions demonstrated that seasonal dry spells could no longer be treated as unexpected natural disasters managed through ad hoc emergency relief. Instead, the situation pointed to a structural failure in how water resources were governed. Management of the island water network was split across 3 primary state institutions: the Irrigation Department, the Mahaweli Authority, and the Department of Agrarian Development. Major inter-basin reservoirs and trunk canal systems received priority from the Irrigation Department and the Mahaweli Authority, whereas thousands of minor village tanks remained under the separate purview of the Department of Agrarian Development. During prolonged dry weather, this divided architecture led to operational friction, leaving downstream minor tanks routinely starved of replenishment because upstream releases operated in isolation.

Transforming the approach to drought required a fundamental shift from reactive crisis management to proactive institutional reform. The first step involved Parliament enacting legislation to establish a unified National Water Resources Authority, which would consolidate the planning, monitoring, and allocation functions currently distributed among the 3 existing bodies. A single national authority would enforce transparent water allocation priorities during low-flow periods, balancing domestic drinking requirements, ecological flows, and agricultural needs while enabling synchronised water releases between major reservoirs and minor village tank cascades.

Institutional unification needed accompaniment by targeted capital allocation within national infrastructure budgets to restore physical and ecological storage systems. The dry zone benefited from ancient interconnected cascade tank systems that naturally captured rainfall, regulated hydrological flows, and recharged shallow aquifers, but decades of structural neglect left these minor tanks heavily silted. Infrastructure spending must prioritise systematic de-silting, bund stabilisation, and catchment reforestation to expand localised water retention capacity and buffer surface storage against extreme evaporation.

Storage and governance reforms also required a mandatory reduction in agricultural water demand led by the Ministry of Agriculture. Agricultural policy must enforce climate-smart farming techniques by introducing dynamic cropping patterns informed by seasonal hydrological forecasting, encouraging drought-resilient crop varieties, and accelerating the transition toward micro-irrigation systems such as drip and sprinkler technologies. Safeguarding agricultural productivity, rural economic stability, and public health demanded that national water governance be elevated to a central pillar of national security to prevent seasonal dry spells from continuing to threaten livelihoods and food security.