Mawella Lagoon

Mawella Lagoon is a small, quiet coastal lagoon on the south coast of Sri Lanka, lying just inland of Mawella beach between Dickwella and Tangalle in Hambantota District. It covers roughly 91 hectares, a sheet of still water ringed by coconut palms, village gardens and a thin fringe of mangroves, and it sits only about a kilometre and a half from the Hummanaya blowhole at Kudawella. Most visitors know it as a place to paddle at sunrise or sunset, but it is also a working lagoon, a seaplane landing site and the subject of one of the south coast's longest-running conservation plans.

Mawella Lagoon at a Glance

How the Lagoon Formed

Mawella Lagoon began life as a piece of the sea. Around five to six thousand years ago, in the middle of the Holocene, sea level along this coast stood roughly three metres higher than it does today, and the low ground behind the present beach was a sheltered bay. As the sea fell back, sand ridges and low dunes built up along the shore and closed the bay off, leaving a separate body of water behind the barrier. The same process shaped the rocky Kudawella headland to the south, which rises about 30 metres above the sea and holds the blowhole.

The result is a coastline of unusual variety for the south: wide curving beaches, rocky points and cliffs, small pocket coves, and, just behind them, a calm lagoon fed by rain and small streams from the low hills to the north.

Mangroves, Birds and Wildlife

Mangroves grow in a narrow, broken strip along the lagoon's shore and in the marshy ground around it. A field survey in 1999 recorded true mangroves such as milky mangrove (Excoecaria agallocha), Sonneratia and grey mangrove (Avicennia), together with the holly-leaved Acanthus ilicifolius, the mangrove fern Acrostichum aureum and coastal trees such as sea hibiscus and the portia tree. Floating plants, among them water lilies and the invasive water hyacinth, cover parts of the open water.

Birds are the main draw for most visitors. Egrets and herons stalk the shallows, little cormorants, Indian shags and darters dry their wings on dead branches, black-winged stilts and lapwings work the muddy edges, and purple swamphens and white-breasted waterhens pick through the reeds. Kingfishers are common along the banks, and terns hunt over the water. Water monitors are often seen swimming or basking at the edge, and the lagoon also holds freshwater terrapins and water snakes. For a bigger wetland with more species, Kalametiya Bird Sanctuary is a short drive east.

A Lagoon in Trouble, and the Plan to Save It

Older fishermen in Mawella remember a very different lagoon. Until the 1950s it was deep, brackish and rich, with around 27 kinds of fish and crustaceans, among them milkfish, mullet, mangrove snapper, scat and three species of prawn, and it fed many of the families around it. Over the following decades that changed. The roughly 700-metre canal on the south-eastern side that carried sea water in and out stopped working, the water turned almost fresh, and much of the marine life disappeared. Silt and weeds filled the basin, banks were filled in for house plots, sewage and household waste ran into the water, and coconut husks were soaked at the edge to make coir fibre. An introduced fish, the Mozambique tilapia, further changed what was left.

In the national Coastal Zone Management Plan of 1997, Mawella and the neighbouring Kudawella coast were named a "special area", and in 2000 a Special Area Management Plan was drawn up by the Coast Conservation Department and the Southern Development Authority under the Norway-funded Hambantota Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project. It set out to cut pollution, mark the lagoon's boundary to stop encroachment, rehabilitate the canal to restore the link with the sea, bring back mangroves and fish, and make the lagoon and beach easier for the public to reach. The figures quoted on this page for the lagoon's depth, salinity and species come from that plan, and some of its goals are still a work in progress.

Fishing has not stopped. At the end of the 1990s a few dozen small non-motorised canoes still worked the lagoon, and on Mawella beach some fishermen without boats of their own still haul in nets from the shore using madel, the traditional beach-seine method. A proposed fishing anchorage with breakwaters off Mawella beach, announced in 2020, drew objections from madel fishermen and local tourism businesses worried about erosion and the loss of the open beach.

Kayaking and Boat Trips

The lagoon's still water and lack of traffic make it one of the gentlest places on the south coast to try kayaking. Guided trips usually last about two hours and set off early in the morning or in the late afternoon, when the light is soft, the birds are most active and the heat is bearable. You paddle along the mangrove edges and past fishermen's canoes and village gardens, with a guide pointing out birds and explaining how the lagoon is used. No experience is needed, though you should be comfortable around water. If you would rather not paddle, a slow boat trip with a local boatman covers the same water.

The lagoon is also a landing site for seaplanes. Cinnamon Air uses Mawella Lagoon as its water landing for Dickwella and the Tangalle coast, so on some days you may see a small floatplane touch down on the water.

Visiting Tips

• Go early or late. Sunrise and the two hours before sunset are the best times for birds, photography and comfortable paddling.
• Bring sun and insect protection. A hat, sunscreen and insect repellent help, especially near the mangroves at dusk.
• Do not swim in the lagoon. The water is shallow, weedy and in places polluted. Mawella beach, a few minutes away, is the place for a swim when the sea is calm.
• Respect the village. The lagoon shore is lined with homes and gardens. Ask before photographing people, and keep clear of nets and fishing canoes.
• Leave no rubbish. Waste is one of the lagoon's main problems, so carry out everything you bring.

Getting There

Mawella lies on the coast just off the Matara to Tangalle road (the A2), about 8 km west of Tangalle town and about 6 km east of Dickwella, and roughly 190 km from Colombo. A tuk-tuk from Tangalle takes around 15 to 20 minutes. Most kayak and boat operators meet you at the water's edge or arrange a pick-up from hotels in Mawella, Tangalle and Dickwella. Seaplane charters land on the lagoon itself.

Nearby

• The Hummanaya blowhole at Kudawella, where waves force sea water up through a cleft in the rock, about 1.5 km away.
• Mawella beach, the long sweep of sand between the lagoon and the sea.
• Goyambokka beach and the other bays around Tangalle.
• Rekawa Lagoon and the turtle-nesting beach at Rekawa, east of Tangalle.
• The rock temple of Mulkirigala Raja Maha Vihara, inland from Tangalle.
• The giant seated Buddha at Wewurukannala Vihara near Dickwella.
• Further afield, Bundala National Park and Yala National Park, both reachable as day trips.