Eppawala
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Eppawala
එප්පාවල எப்பாவல | |
|---|---|
  Eppawala Location in Sri Lanka | |
| Coordinates: 8°8′33″N 80°24′10″E / 8.14250°N 80.40278°E | |
| Country | Sri Lanka |
| Province | North Central Province |
| District | Anuradhapura |
| Division | Thalawa |
| Government | |
| • Grama Niladhari | Gurumuni Haramanisge Chandrasiri Soysa [1] |
| Elevation | 348 ft (106 m) |
| Time zone | UTC+5:30 (Sri Lanka Standard Time Zone) |
| Postal code | 50260 |
Eppawala (Sinhala: එප්පාවල, Tamil: எப்பாவல) is a settlement and Grama Niladhari administrative division in North Central Province, Sri Lanka. It forms part of the Thalawa Divisional Secretariat within the Anuradhapura District. It is situated around 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of the ancient city of Anuradhapura and 150 kilometres (93 mi) north east of Sri Lankan capital Colombo.
Eppawala and its surroundings are located within a geological region of high-grade phosphate deposits – Sri Lanka's only phosphate deposits. Mined since the 1970s by government-owned Lanka Phosphate, the deposits attracted media attention and spawned national protests in the late 1990s when overseas corporations expressed interest in initiating intensive mining operations.
Although the name Eppawala refers to the settlement itself, in the context of the surrounding geology it may also refer to the network of villages located within the proposed phosphate exploration zones and for which Eppawala is the urban centre. In 1999, approximately 40,000 people lived inside this zone.[2]
Population
Humans have resided in Eppawala for over 2000 years.[3] It received a population boost during the 1990s when internally displaced people (IDPs) settled there as a cause of the Sri Lankan Civil War,[4] due in part to Eppawala's location on the fringes of regional population hub Anuradhapura.
Geography
Eppawala is situated within the centre of the ancient region of Rajarata. Past civilizations who had populated the region had developed sustainable methods of conserving and irrigating excess monsoon rainfall, methods still in use by the current population [5] and based around a 87 kilometres (54 mi) long canal named the Jayaganga.
