SL’s largest fishing harbour in Wennappuwa completed with LHI expertise
Lanka Hydraulic Institute Ltd (LHI), a leading Sri Lankan engineering consultancy firm has been extending its hydrology expertise for Sri Lanka’s coastal and water sector especially in the development of fishery harbours with around 15 projects completed or about to complete up to now, LHI CEO Janaka Kurukulasuriya told the Business Times.
Referring to its latest local venture, he noted that the Wellamankara Fishery Harbour in Wennappuwa, which is constructed as the largest fishing harbour in Sri Lanka with LHI expertise in consultancy and construction supervision, will be opened to the public soon.
He noted that the LHI is according priority to local coastal and water sector projects in the island and its services are also relied upon by a number of international clients in Algeria, Bangladesh, Belize, Bhutan, Brunei, Eritrea, France, India, Iran, Maldives, Mauritius, Oman, Senegal, South Korea, and the UAE.
The institute has provided feasibility and detailed designs of this harbour while conducting a study on its implication to the west coastline and it was also modeled using computer simulation tools to accurately predict long term shoreline evolution, he explained.
The project cost of the harbour reached almost Rs. 2 billion and was completed in December 2021. With a basin area of 7.7 hectares, the fishery harbour has a capacity to moor more than 350 boats at once, including 65 feet length multiday fishing boats.
In order to confront the insufficient fish landing facilities in that area, the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development (MFARD) decided to launch a fully-fledged fishery harbour project to benefit multiday fishing vessels.
“During the past years, we have provided our consultancy service for fishery harbour development projects along the coastal belt of Sri Lanka, including Cod Bay, Valaichchenai, Hambantota, Kalametiya, Dikkowita, Kudawella, Puranawella and Mirissa,” the LHI CEO said.
Project Manager of Wellamankara Fishery Harbour Project, Dr. D.P.C Laknath stated that “from the coastal engineering point of view, selecting a suitable location, design and construction of the marine structures and onshore facilities were challenging”.
This was because of the project area is highly sensitive and associated with coastal processes such as coastal erosion, currents, waves and sediment transports which made Wellamankara a vulnerable area in the past before the implementation of Coastal Resources Management Project (CRMP), he added.
The Wellamankara Fishery Harbour is designed with 4 metres minimum depth to service multiday fishing boats up to 65 feet in length.
The marine structures of the harbour were designed and optimised carefully considering dominant local and regional coastal processes.
To protect the harbour mainly from adverse wave and sediment actions, the harbour basin is provided with two breakwaters with a total length of 710 metres. For mooring and loading, unloading activities, a quay wall of 350 metres length has been constructed.
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