Major reservoirs are 38% full, below the 42% long‑term average for 16 Oct

About these figures

• Irrigation Department. Effective storage is the water above the dead storage, the level below which a reservoir cannot release water; its % is of active storage, the capacity above that level. Daily from the 2020/21 Maha season for the major reservoirs and from Yala 2023 for the medium ones, from the Department's season tables; a reservoir not read on a day repeats its last reading there. The long-term average is the Department's, for each calendar day. The totals count each reservoir's last reading of the past week, on days when the reservoirs read hold at least 90% of the active storage. Below a quarter full, the % is in orange.
• Mahaweli Authority. Gross storage and its % of gross capacity, the water level above mean sea level, rain in the last 24 hours and the discharge, as the Water Management Secretariat prints them each day. The Authority's report holds only the latest day, so its history here starts on 15 October 2026.
• 19 reservoirs are in both, Minneriya, Kantale and Parakrama Samudraya among them; each agency's figures are shown as it reports them, so they are not added into one national total. Every reservoir and every total is also a series of its own under Weather.
• Sources: Irrigation Department, Water Management Branch, daily water level and storage of major and medium reservoirs. Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka, Water Management Secretariat, daily status of reservoirs.