President's Corner

Editorial

It felt like a journey to the past when I walked through the ancient earth embankment of “Kuda Wilachchiya” with a group of irrigation and archeology officials. The ruins of the ancient earth embankment, sluices, spill in the midst of Wilpattu national park would certainly bring the same feeling to anyone who visits there.

Irrigation Department does the feasibility investigations and surveys to restore the ancient abandoned reservoir situated in the South West of Wilpattu. (Refer map). Once restored, this will serve for the domestic needs in Wilachchiya area, augment the irrigation supply to tail end of Maha Wilachchiya scheme, and most importantly, it will be a perennial water source to the wild animals in the Wilpattu national park.

This ancient reservoir is believed to have been built by King Wasaba (67-111 AD). It lies in the thick jungle of Wilpattu national park where the public has no access. Hence, those who are doing the surveys have to travel by a tractor to a certain distance and lead the rest of the journey by foot.

Irrigation officials in Anuradhapura believe that, early surveyors would have mixed up the names of the two Wilachchiyas, as Kuda Wilchchiya embankment is larger than Maha Wilachchiya. There are 7 breaches along the 3 km long embankment. It seems that the reservoir had been breached due to a hydrological failure, not a structural defect of the sluice (Bisokotuwa), as the two Bisokotuwas and spill are intact.

The well packed rubble rip-rap in the upstream slope remains undamaged, even after decades of abandonment and with the movement of elephant herds in the park. One other special design feature in the upstream slope is the berm, that provided stability to the upstream slope; this is a rare design concept used by our ancestors, specially for a high dam section. Massive skilled workforce would have been involved for the dressed rubble work used in the riprap, as each block has been precisely cut to fit the position.

The two Bisokotuwas are also masterpieces of the ancient engineers. The stone slabs used in the inner face fit each other perfectly, that there is no space for plants to grow, even in this thick jungle. The outer cover of the sluice tower, made out of bricks, and the inner stone slabs still remains intact, demonstrating the great skills of those ancient reservoir builders.

Another special feature in the headworks is the conveyance canal from the sluice outlet, which is made as a close conduit using stone slabs. Until the surveys are over, it is difficult to explain the reason for this application.

Its ancient spill is another remarkable work of art that shows the great engineering capabilities our ancestors possessed.   The villagers call the wing wall and the backfilling section as “ Paththirippuwa” since they believe it as the place where the king had his meetings.

An inscription at the spill belongs to 16th century says “Kusaya Buduwewa” (meaning- May Kusaya attain  Buddhahood). It is proposed to restore the headworks by preserving ancient features with the advice of The Archeological Department. The future generation can observe the spill and sluices built by ancient engineers, without any alteration.

After spending about three hours in the ancient reservoir premises, I was stunned, not only with the planning, design and construction capabilities of the ancient irrigation engineers but also with the present irrigation engineers’ struggle, with a bear family living in the ancient sluice barrel and frequently interfering with the survey team.

(Special thanks goes to Eng Wasantha Palugaswewa, Former Regional Director of Irrigation, Ms Priyanka   Irrigation Engineer and Mr Marapana, Engineering Assistant who guided us through the journey and also for providing the survey details.)

The ancient chronicle Mahavamsa states that he constructed eleven reservoirs and twelve canals to distribute water from them. His most notable construction is the Alahara canal, which originally had a length of about 30 miles (48 km). It was created by damming the Amban river, and was used to divert water in a westerly direction for agricultural use.

The reservoirs at Mahavilachchiya and Nochchipotana, which have both been identified as constructions of Vasabha, have a circumference of about 2 miles (3.2 km). Due to such constructions, King Vasabha pioneered the construction of large irrigation works in the country.

Read Chapter 35 of the Mahavamsa, which describes King Vasabha's rule.

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11-12-13th October 2013 at the BMICH

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