Water Quality Monitoring of Diyawanna Oya

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Diyawanna Oya

The Diyawanna Oya is considered environmentally important for both its flood retention capabilities, and for providing a home to many wetland indigenous flora and fauna. The catchment of the Parliament Lake of Diyawanna oya is about 44 km2 area covering Local Authority areas of Kaduwela Municipal Council, Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte Municipal Council and Maharagama Urban Council. It is quite popular as the Sri Lankan Parliament Building was built on an artificial island at the center of the lake.
The canal system which is in and around Colombo-Sri Jayewardenepura area is currently in such an environmentally deteriorated condition due to rapid development and urbanization of the area. The quality of water and habitat in most of the areas are influenced by industrial and public effluent discharge to the canal system.
In the recent past, water of Diyawanna Lake indicated many water quality problems such as bloom formation, fish kills etc. The maintenance of good water quality in Diyawanna Lake is fundamental to the long-term future of the lake as a multi-user resource
Eight sampling locations have been selected for monitoring of the water quality in Diyawanna Oya from April 2016.