Maha Oya estuary salt-water intrusion: monitoring saline wedges at Bambukuliya weir?
How do water board engineers monitor real-time tidal salinity ingress at the Bambukuliya intake weir during dry-season low river flows?
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3 Answers from travellers
The Bambukuliya intake on the Maha Oya supplies municipal water to Negombo and Katunayake. During dry inter-monsoon months (February-March), low river discharge allows ocean tides to push a high-salinity water wedge along the excavated riverbed up to the weir. Hydrologists use submerged electrical conductivity (EC) sensors anchored upstream and downstream of the weir inflatable rubber gate. If salinity exceeds 250 mg/L chlorides (the potable water limit), weir bladders are inflated to block the tidal surge, and treatment plants switch to offline storage reservoirs.
Historical riverbed sand-mining deepened river channels, allowing the salt wedge to travel 8 kilometers further inland than it did fifty years ago.
Farmers pumping water for coconut groves above the weir must test conductivity; irrigating palms with saline water causes premature nut drop.
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