The Kelani River ( si, කැළණි ගඟ) is a river in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. Ranking as the fourth-longest river in the country, it stretches from the
Sri Pada Mountain Range to
Colombo
Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...
. It flows through or borders the Sri Lankan districts of
Nuwara Eliya
Nuwara Eliya ( si, නුවර එළිය ; ta, நுவரெலியா) is a city in the hill country of the Central Province, Sri Lanka. Its name means "city on the plain (table land)" or "city of light". The city is the administrativ ...
,
Ratnapura
Ratnapura (; ) ("City of Gems" in Sinhala and Tamil) is a major city in Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of Sabaragamuwa Province, as well as the Ratnapura District, and is a traditional centre for the Sri Lankan gem trade. It is located ...
,
Kegalle
Kegalle ( si, කෑගල්ල; ta, கேகாலை) is a large town in Sabaragamuwa Province of Sri Lanka. It is located on the Colombo–Kandy road, approximately from Colombo and from Kandy. It is the main town in the Kegalle District ...
,
Gampaha
Gampaha (Sinhala: ගම්පහ ; Tamil: கம்பஹா ) is an urban city in Gampaha District, Western Province, Sri Lanka. It is situated to the north-east of the capital Colombo. It is the sixth largest urban area in Western Province, ...
and Colombo. The Kelani River also flows through the capital of Sri Lanka, Colombo, and provides 80% of its drinking water.
Hydrology
The Kelani River has two main tributaries in its upper reaches: the
Kehelgamu Oya and the
Maskeli Oya. These two contribute to hydro-electric production in Sri Lanka, housing several major reservoirs, ponds and power stations.
Castlereigh Reservoir and
Norton Reservoir
The Norton Reservoir is a lake/reservoir/pond within the towns of Norton and Mansfield, in southeastern Massachusetts. The Rumford River
The Rumford River is a small river in southeastern Massachusetts, United States, that is a tributary of the ...
are constructed across the Kehelgamu Oya, while
Maskeliya Reservoir
The Maskeliya Dam (also known as the Maussakelle Dam) is a large gravity dam at Maskeliya, in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. Along with the Castlereigh Dam, the dams are the highest point and beginning of the Laxapana Hydropower Complex, invo ...
,
Canyon Reservoir and
Laxapana Reservoir are constructed across the Maskeli Oya. In its lower reaches, some more tributaries connect to the Kelani River, out of which the most famous are the We Oya at
Yatiyanthota
Yatiyanthota is a town in Kegalle District, in Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly kno ...
, the Gurugoda Oya at Ruwanwella, and the Seethawaka Ganga at
Avissawella
Avissawella, ( si, අවිස්සාවේල්ල, ta, அவிசாவளை) is a township in Sri Lanka, governed by an Urban Council, situated on the A4 route from Colombo to Ratnapura, Colombo District, Western Province, Sri Lanka, ap ...
.
Hydrometry and usage
![Important locations of Anuradhapura Kingdom](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Important_locations_of_Anuradhapura_Kingdom.png)
The Kelani supplies approximately 80% of the water used in
Colombo
Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...
. In addition, the river is used for
transport
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...
,
fisheries
Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...
,
sewage disposal
Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding envir ...
,
sand mining
Sand mining is the extraction of sand, mainly through an open pit (or sand pit) but sometimes mined from beaches and inland dunes or dredged from ocean and river beds. Sand is often used in manufacturing, for example as an abrasive or in concret ...
and for production of
hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other Renewabl ...
. Through these factors, many people depend on the river for their daily routine in life. Depending on the operation of three
reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
s, the river flow varies from to in the dry seasons, and to during the
monsoons
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
. The annual sand extraction from the river is approximately to . From a
barge
Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...
, people dive to the river bed, from where the sand is lifted to the barge in a bucket, and when the barge is full, it is taken to the
river bank and unloaded by a separate team. The sand mining causes the river bed to sink by approximately per year. At present, two main concerns in connection with the river are flooding during the
monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
and saline intrusion in the dry season.
In addition, Kelani River water levels affect the flood risk to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, to a considerable extent. One reason is that part of the city and suburbs of Colombo lies on the lower flood plain of the river. Exposure of Colombo and the upper catchments of Kelani River to the South West Monsoon is another reason.
The problems are related: the saline intrusion is enhanced by the deepening of the river caused by sand mining. Regulation, in order to prevent saline intrusion, can reduce the water quality in other ways, and can increase the flood risk. Sand mining is economically important nationally and to the many people involved.
The Kelani stream flow was investigated just upstream of Ambatale at
Hanwella
Hanwella is a town in Sri Lanka, situated about from Colombo, the commercial capital of the country. Hanwella lies on the Colombo-Ratnapura main road, on the banks of the Kelani River.
Geography
This historic city belongs to the Colombo distr ...
, with engineers analyzing the river discharges from 1973 to 2004 (in million m³/month).
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Cultural references
Kelani River is connected closely with the Sinhala Buddhist culture of Sri Lanka, especially with the people living on the area identified as the Kelani Valley. This derives primarily from the fact that the Kelani River is associated with two of the most venerated Buddhist shrines and pilgrimages, i.e.
Sri Pada Mountain and Kelani Raja Maha Viharaya. There are a number of folk poems that mention the Kelani River, such as the following:
Folk Poems
මලේ මලේ ඔය නා මල නෙළා වරෙන්
අත්ත බිඳෙයි පය බුරුලෙන් තබා වරෙන්
කැලණි ගඟේ ඔරු යනවා බලා වරෙන්
සාදුකාර දී ඔරුවක නැගී වරෙන්
මහවැලි කැලණි කලු වලවේ යන ගංගා
සමනොළ කන්ද මුදුනේ සිට පැන නැංගා
බෑවුම් තැනිතලා හෙල් අතරින් රිංගා
මේවා ගලයි මිණි කැට දිය යට හංගා
''Hansa Sandeshaya''
සමනොළ මුදුන සිරිපද ඔබන
මගුලට
නිකසල මහ සඟන ගෙන වඩින
මුනිඳුට
පැහැදුල සුනිල් මිණියෙන් කළ මග ලෙසට
මනදොළ පිරෙයි ගඟ සිරිසර දුටු තොපට
The
Kalyani Ordination Hall
Kalyāṇī Ordination Hall (, pi, Kalyāṇī Sīmā) is a Buddhist ordination hall located in Bago, Myanmar. The ordination hall is a major pilgrimage site, and houses the Kalyani Inscriptions, a set of 10 sandstone pillars inscribed in Pali an ...
in
Bago, Myanmar
Bago (formerly spelt Pegu; , ), formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is a city and the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located north-east of Yangon.
Etymology
The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon langu ...
derives its name from the Kelani River.
Special features
The
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
-winning ''
The Bridge on the River Kwai
''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' is a 1957 epic war film directed by David Lean and based on the 1952 novel written by Pierre Boulle. Although the film uses the historical setting of the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–1943, the pl ...
'' was filmed on the Kelani River near
Kitulgala
Kitulgala is a small town in the west of Sri Lanka. The Academy Award-winning ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' was filmed on the Kelani River near Kitulgala, although nothing remains now except the concrete foundations for the bridge. Kitulgala is ...
, although nothing remains now except the concrete foundations for the bridge (and, supposedly, the submerged train cars that plunged into the river in the climactic scene).
Sri Lanka für Fortgeschrittene
/ref>
Bridges over Kelani River
The following table shows the major bridges over the Kelani River:
See also
* Geography of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, formerly called "Ceylon", is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, southeast of the Indian subcontinent, in a strategic location near major Indian Ocean sea lanes. The nation has a total area of , with of land and of water. Its coa ...
* List of rivers in Sri Lanka
The following table lists most rivers of Sri Lanka. Since Sri Lanka is a trilingual country, some rivers may have a Sinhala name (i.e. Kalu Ganga), while other have an English name (i.e. Kelani River). In the Sinhala language, Ganga (ගඟ) tra ...
* Kelani River-Peliyagoda Waterdrome
* Biyagama Water Treatment Plant
The Biyagama Water Treatment Plant or BWTP is a water treatment facility located at the bank of Kelani River, in Biyagama, Sri Lanka. At a daily output capacity of , it is the second largest water treatment facility in the country. The plant prov ...
References
{{Inland waters of Sri Lanka
Bodies of water of Colombo District
Bodies of water of Gampaha District
Geography of Colombo
Rivers of Sri Lanka