Today we are going to talk about the highest dam in Sri Lanka Victoria Dam
This Victoria Dam is a double-arched dam located 6 km from Theldeniya city on the upper part of the Mahaweli river.
This is the tallest dam in Sri Lanka, and it provides 210 MW of electricity capacity to Sri Lanka’s largest hydroelectric plant.Victoria Dam is 122 meters high, 520 meters long, 6 meters wide and 25 meters wide base.This dam got its name like thisBefore the Victoria Dam was built, 300m below it was the Victoria Falls.
There is another story behind this name…
The then President J.R. who went to England and met Queen Elizabeth II. Mr. Jayawardena tells the Queen that he needs a loan for the largest reservoir to be built in Sri Lanka….
He says that even if this is taken as a loan, the reservoir is named after Queen Elizabeth’s grandmother, Queen Victoria.But actually the name was suggested for Victoria Reservoir before. Because the dam was built on the Victoria Falls.
There is also a story…
The Victoria Reservoir was created through this dam and the reservoir is spread over a surface area of 22.7 square kilometers.Do you know that Victoria Reservoir has a water capacity of 722,000,000 cubic meters and a catchment area of 1869 square kilometers…
Also, Victoria Dam consists of 8 sluice gates with a width of 12.5 meters and a length of 6.5 meters…
These sluice gates open automatically when the water level in the reservoir rises…
In addition, 2 sluice gates are located at the base of the dam at a low level and they are used to remove the silt that collects behind the dam.
