North Western Provincial Office of Water Resources Board which is situated at Senakudirippuwa, Puttalam was established in 1982 , that has been working as the major institute of groundwater development and management activities within Kurunegala and Puttalam districts that falls in the province of North West. North western province falls on the dry zone and intermediate zone of Sri Lanka in which the major aquifer systems are Alluvial Deposits associated with major streams, the fractured basement rock aquifers, Limestone aquifers and dune Sand formations. There are considerable amount of community water supply projects and agriculture activities are conducted in the province which are totally dependent on groundwater.
The present activities of the Provincial Office include:
- Commercial activities
- Groundwater Investigations
- Pumping Tests
- Environmental Impact Assessments
- Laboratory Analysis
2. Long Term Groundwater Monitoring Project (Puttalam)
3. Groundwater Monitoring at Malwathu Oya Reservoir Project
Special tasks covered by Puttalam provincial office are,
- Well monitoring program at Lakvijaya Power Plant to monitor the quality of water in tube wells and dug wells in Lakvijaya power plant and surrounding area to identify the any adverse effect to the surrounding environment.
- Monitoring of water quality variations due to the construction of Solid waste Management project at Aruwakkalu
- Conducting combined field inspections with Central Environment Authority / Geological Survey &Mines Bureau on Environmental issues relating groundwater