Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka (MASL)

With the elections of 1977 the UNP government came to power. The decision was taken by the then president Mr.J.R Jayawardane to accelerate the Mahaweli project to its realistic limites, in order to make the country self-sufficient in rice, generate sufficient hydro power for industrial use, and find employment for nearly 1.2 million unemployed youth in our country. From the experience gained in other colonization schemes under major irrigation schemes and also under both Galoya and Walawe the government of the time was aware that although the theoretical water requirement per acre was around 10n acre ft per annum, the reality was that the farmers use double this quantity of water for two seasons for various practical reasons. It was therefore very clear that it would be possible to cultivate only half the area that the Master plan envisaged, namely 450,000 acres of the original 900,000 acres planned for development.