The Samanala Dam ( Sinhala : සමනලවැව වේල්ල ) is a dam primarily used for hydroelectric power generation in Sri Lanka . Commissioned in 1992, the Samanalawewa Project ( Samanala Reservoir Project ) is the third-largest hydroelectric scheme in the country, producing 405 GWh of energy annually. It was built with financial support from Japan and the United Kingdom . It is notable for a large leak on its right bank. Power production continues as planned despite the leakage, and the water from the leak now provides two thirds of the water issued by the reservoir for agriculture in downstream areas.
24-640: The Samanala Dam is located in the Uda Walawe basin. It was built at the confluence of the Walawe river and the Belihul Oya , a location 400 metres (1,300 ft) above mean sea level. It is near the town of Balangoda , 160 kilometres (99 mi) southeast of the capital Colombo . The ground of the project area is karstic . With the Mahaweli and Laxapana hydroelectric power projects implemented,
48-662: A Dravidian origin for this word. ), dola for pig in Vedda and offering in Sinhala. Other common words are rera for wild duck, and gala for stones (in toponyms used throughout the island, although others have also suggested a Dravidian origin). There are also high frequency words denoting body parts in Sinhala, such as olluva for head, kakula for leg, bella for neck and kalava for thighs, that are derived from pre-Sinhalese languages of Sri Lanka. The oldest Sinhala grammar, Sidatsan̆garavā , written in
72-509: A hydroelectric power plant in this area have been carried out since 1958, but the scheme was initiated only in 1986. The financing for the project was given by the governments of Japan and the United Kingdom . Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners did the design work and Balfour Beatty were the contracts to lay roads, drive a tunnel and build the power station. The cost of the project was estimated to be 60,176 million yen , but with
96-779: A period of prior bilingualism: "The earliest type of contact in Sri Lanka, not considering the aboriginal Vedda languages, was that which occurred between South Dravidian and Sinhala. It seems plausible to assume prolonged contact between these two populations as well as a high degree of bilingualism. This explains why Sinhala looks deeply South Dravidian for an Indo-Aryan language. There is corroboration in genetic findings." In addition to many Tamil loanwords , several phonetic and grammatical features also present in neighbouring Dravidian languages set modern spoken Sinhala apart from its Northern Indo-Aryan relatives. These features are evidence of close interactions with Dravidian speakers. Some of
120-415: A result the exact mechanism of the leak cannot be established, so remedial measures have been unsuccessful. The project was planned as a single purpose hydropower project. Therefore, the effects on the agriculture and the environment of the area were taken into consideration very little during the development. Although an irrigational release valve (IRV) is there in the dam to supply water to the farmlands in
144-402: Is 4.5 metres (15 ft) in diameter and 5,159 metres (16,926 ft) in length. The reservoir created by the dam has a total live storage capacity of 218,000,000 cubic metres (7.7 × 10 cu ft). Its gross storage capacity is 278,000,000 cubic metres (9.8 × 10 cu ft), of which 60,000,000 cubic metres (2.1 × 10 cu ft) is dead storage. The reservoir's full supply level
168-481: Is 460 metres (1,510 ft) above main sea level, and the reservoir spreads 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) upstream at this level. The reservoir is u-shaped. It covers an area of 897 ha . However, with the water leakage the water level was reduced to 430 metres (1,410 ft). It is one of the largest reservoirs in Sri Lanka. The power house contains two Francis turbines , each with a capacity of 62 MW, and generates 405 GWh of energy annually. The powerplant
192-847: Is a 138 km (86 mi) long river in Sri Lanka which originates on Adam's Peak . It discharges into the Indian Ocean at the coastal town of Ambalantota . This Southern Province, Sri Lanka location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in Sri Lanka is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Sinhala language Sinhala ( / ˈ s ɪ n h ə l ə , ˈ s ɪ ŋ ə l ə / SIN -hə-lə, SING -ə-lə ; Sinhala: සිංහල , siṁhala , [ˈsiŋɦələ] ), sometimes called Sinhalese ( / ˌ s ɪ n ( h ) ə ˈ l iː z , ˌ s ɪ ŋ ( ɡ ) ə ˈ l iː z / SIN -(h)ə- LEEZ , SING -(g)ə- LEEZ ),
216-463: Is a conspicuous example of the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia . Sinhala ( Siṁhala ) is a Sanskrit term; the corresponding Middle Indo-Aryan ( Eḷu ) word is Sīhala . The name is a derivative of siṁha , the Sanskrit word for 'lion'. The name is sometimes glossed as 'abode of lions', and attributed to a supposed former abundance of lions on the island. According to
240-599: Is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka , who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also spoken as the first language by other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, totalling about 2 million speakers as of 2001. It is written using the Sinhala script , which is a Brahmic script closely related to the Grantha script of South India. Sinhala
264-484: Is divided into four epochs: The most important phonetic developments of Sinhala include: According to Wilhelm Geiger , an example of a possible Western feature in Sinhala is the retention of initial /v/ which developed into /b/ in the Eastern languages (e.g. Sanskrit viṁśati "twenty", Sinhala visi- , Hindi bīs ). This is disputed by Muhammad Shahidullah who says that Sinhala Prakrit branched off from
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#1732801364342288-475: Is managed by the Ceylon Electricity Board . A permeable area of ground was found during the construction of the dam in 1988. Curtain grouting was used in an effort to remedy this. However, as the reservoir was being filled, a large leak occurred on the side of the right bank, about 300 metres (980 ft) downstream from the dam, causing a landslip . Subsequent measures taken to control
312-412: Is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, alongside Tamil . Along with Pali , it played a major role in the development of Theravada Buddhist literature. Early forms of the Sinhala language are attested as early as the 3rd century BCE. The language of these inscriptions, still retaining long vowels and aspirated consonants, is a Prakrit similar to Magadhi , a regional associate of
336-729: The Middle Indian Prakrits that had been used during the time of the Buddha . The most closely related languages are the Vedda language (an endangered, indigenous creole still spoken by a minority of Sri Lankans, mixing Sinhala with an isolate of unknown origin and from which Old Sinhala borrowed various aspects into its main Indo-Aryan substrate), and the Maldivian language . It has two main varieties, written and spoken, and
360-587: The UNESCO National Commission of Ceylon According to Wilhelm Geiger , Sinhala has features that set it apart from other Indo-Aryan languages. Some of the differences can be explained by the substrate influence of the parent stock of the Vedda language . Sinhala has many words that are only found in Sinhala, or shared between Sinhala and Vedda and not etymologically derivable from Middle or Old Indo-Aryan. Possible examples include kola for leaf in Sinhala and Vedda (although others suggest
384-464: The 13th century CE, recognised a category of words that exclusively belonged to early Sinhala. The grammar lists naram̆ba (to see) and koḷom̆ba (fort or harbour) as belonging to an indigenous source. Koḷom̆ba is the source of the name of the commercial capital Colombo . The consistent left branching syntax and the loss of aspirated stops in Sinhala is attributed to a probable South Dravidian substratum effect. This has been explained by
408-716: The Eastern Prakrits prior to this change. He cites the edicts of Ashoka , no copy of which shows this sound change. An example of an Eastern feature is the ending -e for masculine nominative singular (instead of Western -o ) in Sinhalese Prakrit. There are several cases of vocabulary doublets , one example being the words mæssā ("fly") and mækkā ("flea"), which both correspond to Sanskrit makṣikā but stem from two regionally different Prakrit words macchiā (Western Prakrits) and makkhikā (as in Eastern Prakrits like Pali ). In 1815,
432-402: The area has an annual average of 2,867 millimetres (112.9 in), and the catchment area is 372 square kilometres (144 sq mi). The dam is of rock fill, central earth core type. The spillway of the dam has three gates, each 14 metres (46 ft) high and 11 metres (36 ft) wide. It can discharge water at a rate of 3,600 cubic metres (130,000 cu ft) per second. Its tunnel
456-681: The chronicle Mahāvaṃsa , written in Pali, Prince Vijaya of the Vanga Kingdom and his entourage merged in Sri Lanka with later settlers from the Pandya kingdom . In the following centuries, there was substantial immigration from Eastern India, including additional migration from the Vanga Kingdom (Bengal), as well as Kalinga and Magadha . This influx led to an admixture of features of Eastern Prakrits. The development of Sinhala
480-439: The demand for electricity in Sri Lanka rapidly increased. When it became clear that it would not be possible to meet the demand with coal-fired power plants , the government of Sri Lanka decided to initiate another hydroelectric power project. A reservoir type hydroelectric power plant was planned to be constructed across the Walawe river , which would address the shortage of electricity in the country. Detailed investigations for
504-654: The downstream areas, the yield and cultivable acreage has declined since the Samanalawewa project was commissioned. However, the necessity to constantly release water for agriculture in the downstream areas was reduced due to the leak. Of the water released from the Samanala Dam for agriculture in the downstream areas, two-thirds is from the leak and only one-third has to be supplied via the IRV. Walawe The Walawe ( Sinhala : වලවේ ගඟ , Tamil : வளவை ஆறு )
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#1732801364342528-607: The island of Ceylon came under British rule . During the career of Christopher Reynolds as a Sinhalese lecturer at the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London , he extensively researched the Sinhalese language and its pre-1815 literature. The Sri Lankan government awarded him the Sri Lanka Ranjana medal for his work. He wrote the 377-page An anthology of Sinhalese literature up to 1815 , selected by
552-470: The leakage were largely ineffective. The leakage of approximately 2,100 litres (460 imp gal) per second continues, but has not affected power production at the plant, which has been in full operation since its commissioning in 1992. The leak is constantly monitored. If the leak remains stable and does not increase further, it does not pose a threat to the sustainability of the project. The karstic ground has created complex geological conditions, and as
576-473: The remedial measures taken to control the leak, the cost increased to 74,313 million yen. The Samanalawewa power plant was commissioned in 1992. The Samanalawewa project is the second largest hydroelectric scheme in Sri Lanka after the Mahaweli project . The Samanala Dam is 110 metres (360 ft) in height and has a length of 530 metres (1,740 ft) at crest level. The volume of the dam is about 4,500,000 cubic metres (160,000,000 cu ft). Rainfall in
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