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Deduru Oya Dam

The 928th tallest dam in the world

m

The Deduru Oya Dam is an embankment dam built across the Deduru River in Kurunegala District of Sri Lanka. Built in 2014, the primary purpose of the dam is to retain for irrigation purposes approximately a billion cubic metres of water, which would otherwise flow out to sea. Site studies of the dam began in 2006 and construction started in 2008. It was ceremonially completed in 2014, with the presence of then President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Site studies and design of the dam was done by engineers from the Ministry of Irrigation. The dam, which measures approximately 2,400 m (7, 900 ft) wide, creates the Deduru Oya Reservoir, which has a capacity of 75,000,000 m3 (2.6×109 ft3). Water from the reservoir is used to irrigate approximately 11,000 hectares (27, 000 acres) of farmland, while also powering a 1.5 megawatt hydroelectric power station, operated by the Ministry of Power and Energy. In addition to the eight sluice gates, water from the reservoir is channelled from the reservoir (for irrigation) via three canals, namely the Left Canal, Central Canal, and the South Canal. The South Canal is a trans-basin concrete canal measuring 33 km (21 mi), channelling water from the Deduru Oya Reservoir to the Inginimitiya Reservoir at a flow rate of 300 cu ft/s (8.5 m3/s).

Dam data from Wikidata (CC0) plus curated additions. Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

More dams in Sri Lanka

  1. Moragahakanda Dam185 m
  2. Kantale Dam m
  3. Kotmale Dam m
  4. Kukule Ganga Dam m
  5. Maskeliya Dam m

Other tall dams worldwide

  1. Rogun Dam · Tajikistan335 m
  2. Shuangjiangkou Dam · China312 m
  3. Norak Dam · Tajikistan300 m
  4. Grande Dixence dam · Switzerland285 m
  5. Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam · Russia245 m
  6. Oroville Dam · United States234.7 m
  7. Bhakra Dam · India225.6 m
  8. Hoover Dam · United States221 m