Sri Lanka, though small in size, has a rich and a
proud tradition and a civilization which has an unbroken heritage lasting more
than 2500 years. Our forefathers achieved great engineering feats which
sometimes surpassed those of the present.
According to legendary accounts most of the early
settlers founded villages in the dry zone where the land was generally flat.
The ancient rulers were aware of the needs of the people whose main occupation was
agriculture. Rice cultivation depended very much on rain which could be abounded
in one season and fail in the next. These variations in rainfall created an urgent
need to store water and manage it properly so as to increase the production of
rice.
As time passed, our ancestors were able to control
the waters of streams gifted by nature. Gradually the builders of tanks
developed their own technology and proceeded with the construction of
reservoirs. Hill stream were tapped and their water glided into giant storage
tanks below, some as large as small harbors. These tanks also had an intricate
system of distribution of water to a network of smaller tanks.
The kings who built tanks intended to make maximum use
of the available water. It was king Parakramabahu the great, who said that not
a single drop of rain should reach the see without man making some use of it.
The attempts to achieve this purpose were fruitful.
-Extract-
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