Another landmark in Northern re-development:

Kalmadu Tank restored

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa will open the Kalmadu Irrigation Tank, another landmark irrigation project in the Kilinochchi district.

Blast site before restoration

Tank after restoration

This tank bund was exploded by the LTTE at the last stage of terrorism destroying the livelihood of 4,650 farmer families in the Kandawalai DS Division in Kilinochchi.

The Kalmadu settlement area the purview of the Kandawalai DS Division covers six Grama Niladhari divisions comprising 18,335 people of 4,641 families, which accounts for about 10 percent of the population of the Kilinochchi district.

The Kalmadu Tank is about 18 kms east of the Kilinochchi town. |The ancient tank was restored in 1951-1953 to irrigate 182 ha and improvements were made subsequently by increasing the irrigable area under gravel to 1,397 HA.

The reservoir was impounded by building an earthen dam across the Nethali Aru (river) draining to the Elephant Pass Lagoon.

S. Arumugam, an Irrigation Engineer in his book titled “Water Resources in Ceylon” published in 1969 said that early history of this tank was unknown other than what the name implies, viz. A tank formed by damming low swamp (Madu) at a rocky (Kal) site.

The tank has a catchment area of 68 sq. kms. It is covered mainly by jungle and the length of the bund is 1,575 m with maximum height eight of metres.

The tank was used till the breach of its dam due to the LTTE blast in January 2009. It is reported that the dam even withstood the 1957 flood.

The restored tank will provide direct employment to at least 4,000 farmers and indirect employment such as agricultural labour, machine operators, millers and traders for at least another 2,000.

The other benefits are:

Survival of animal husbandry through canals;

Recharging of ground water ensuring water supply in domestic and public wells;

Ensuring healthy growth of home gardens and perennial crops due to enhanced availability of ground water;

Water for domestic use such as bathing and washing along the irrigation canals;

Water supply to two hospitals, nine schools 20 kovils and one church.