dangerous condition of mullaperiyar dam

Save Mullaperiyar Dam from Disaster & Save Kerala, Save Lives

Posted: November 26, 2011 in Save mullaperiyar dam
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Mullaperiyar Dam is constructed over the headwaters of the Periyar River in Kerala, India. The Periyar National Park, Thekkady is located around the Periyar reservoir formed by the backwaters of this dam. It is operated by the Government of Tamil Nadu according to a 999-year lease agreement made during erstwhile British colonial rule. The name is derived from a portmanteau of Mullaiyar and Periyar. As the dam is located after the confluence of the Mullayar and Periyar Rivers, the river and hence the dam came to be called Mullaperiyar.

The Main purpose of building the Dam was to serve as an irrigation source for the some districts in TamilNadu. No One seems to have a question on that. The Dispute started when the leaks started to show in 110 year old dam. The Dam is made of lime and surki which were the best of construction materials available over a century ago. But how long can a Dam built on lime and surki can survive that took on an earthquake prone area. The British Engineer Colonel John Pennycuick who builds the dam predicted only a life span of 50 years for the Dam.

A Studies suggest a raise in the level of water will increase the water pressure and would end up i breakage of Dam walls. Studies conducted by IIT suggest the area where the dam is located is prone to earthquake as strong as 6.5 in ritcher scale. And the result would be a complete destruction of the dam built in lime and surki. The videos of leakage in the Dam had been out in the visual Medias many times and it clearly suggests there is lot of weak points in the Dam. The Kerala water resources said only a new dam could avert the impending disaster. Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy said the state’s prime concern was safety of the people and that Kerala was ready to bear the expense for building a new dam.

Mullaperiyar Dam Condition

This dam has a height of 54 meters (177 feet) and a basement of 44.2 meters (145 feet). It is built with a mixture of Lime stone and mortar. When it was built, there was no reinforced concrete or similar techniques. The engineer who built this dam calculated that this dam will stand for 50 years. After building the dam there was an agreement between princely state of Travancore and then Madras presidency. It was purely an unfair dealing. The agreement says of leasing out the land area of reservoir for 999 years.

Kerala was giving water to Tamilnadu. It is, and it will. No problem. Problem comes in the other way. The dam is not safe to carry water more than 136 feet of water. Tamilnadu wants it to be raised to 142 feet. Whereas in late 1970s itself central water committee suggested not to raise water level beyond 136 feet as the dam is not in fit condition. Fact is that even in 136 feet water level, Tamilnadu will be able to get water. Another interesting fact is that Tamilnadu pays Andhrapradesh Rs. 3 corers per TMC of water, and Rs. 40,000 for 70 TMC of water! Shall we call it incompetency for Government of Kerala? We should!

See the image below where you can see the week wall of the dam. You should see the cross section of the dam in the image above also to understand the impact of a breach!

Image below, you can see the cracks very clearly. Generally the security system there will not allow anyone to photograph this. Once, Indian navy was called for to photograph the cracks in the dam. But after boarding the boat, Navy got a call from Higher’ authorities to come back! Understand, this STRONG wall is protecting the lives of 35 lakhs + people who live downstream and 5 districts which are in the vicinity of this dam.

Mullaperiyar- A man made natural disaster will be soon

For last few days, I have been looking towards high stored buildings. If you know me in person, it’s not me who stare at large buildings often. I usually don’t care height, age and the language you speak and that applies to any object not just human. But why I now began to look for large buildings now days? It has a solid reason behind it. I know for sure it’s the only thing which can save my life tomorrow. Yes, if the Mullaperiyar Dam collapses tomorrow, I will be one of the 35 lack people who will go underwater. I’m not afraid of dying I know it will happen a day and I always believed myself that mine will be sooner. What I want my readers are to make sure that we know we were going to die before we actually do.

35 lack people are going to die not because of a natural disaster. But the laziness and ignorance of a major part of us and shattered groups of people who know it’s going to happen and didn’t care. I don’t understand the logic of renting a 50 years lifetime guaranteed dam for 999 years with rent of 30 rupee per acre. And it’s been more than 116 years. Couple of tens of years ago, the agreement was renewed by officers of both Kerala and Tamil Nadu and nobody was known about it in public.

Solutions to overcome mullaperiyar dam disaster

Solution #1: Build a large parallel Dam within secure distance from current dam and break current one. It will take at least ten years to build a similar capacity dam and current dam can’t stay for more than a year as it is now. Keep in mind that yesterday there was fourth miner earthquake of this month. So either Tamil Nadu will have to suffer ten years without less water which may cause major financial lose to the state specially who depends on agriculture. But keeping water level in low while the other Dam is build will solve 70% of water availability issue. Kerala Govt even agreed to spend 600 cores for new Dam for sake of people security. Kerala is not using water from Mullaperiyar Dam at present. So with investment of money in, Kerala is expecting to get water benefits.

Solution #2: Build smaller Dams and lower water level of Mullaperiyar and destroy Mullaperiyar securely after all Dams are built. Water can still be used by Tamil Nadu, but they won’t be able to make 30,000 cores per year which they are making now by electricity which was not agreed in the initial agreement with Kerala. Tamil Nadu will not agree to such a lose ignoring life of millions of people in Kerala.