Wednesday, 30 November 2011: Cutting across party lines, MPs from Kerala continued their protest over the Mullaperiyar Dam issue in Parliament premises today, demanding that a new structure be built to replace the existing one.Holding placards, various MPs from different political parties including the ruling Congress sat on a peaceful dharna before the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, claiming that the lives of 30 lakh people were endangered.
“All we are saying is lower the water level from 136 feet to 120 feet for safety of the dam and also to reduce anxiety. At the same time, all procedures should be done for constructing new dam.
We reiterate that the dam is exclusive for the purpose of Tamil Nadu… and not a drop of water will be reduced..,” said Congress MP from Kottayam Jose K Mani. He said the Kerala Water Resources Minister had met the Prime Minister yesterday and explained the situation to him.
Union Ministers from Kerala Vayalar Ravi, K V Thomas, K C Venugopal, Mullapally Ramachandran and E Ahamed had also met the Prime Minister seeking his intervention in ensuring the safety of the dam.
The Mullaperiyar Dam in Kerala’s Idukki district has been a sparring point for the state with Tamil Nadu for quite some time now.
While Tamil Nadu wants to increase the water-level in the reservoir, Kerala has been insisting that it be reduced from the current 136 feet to 120 feet. Kerala is willing to construct a new dam for supplying water to Tamil Nadu, which is opposing the move concerned over losing control over the functionality of the dam.
Various groups in Kerala had been arguing that the dam cannot withstand higher magnitude earthquakes and posed a threat to lives and properties of over three million people in Idukki, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta districts of the state.
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It is notable that Tamil Nadu has not completed the construction of spillways even after several years. The spillway capacity is very important from the point of dam safety for as many as 50 per cent of dam failures in the World1 had resulted from inadequate capacity of the spillways. Tamil Nadu not only neglected this aspect, but also took certain measures that further jeopardised the dam’s safety. It allowed excavated materials to be dumped upstream of the spillways, that too to the level of the spillways.
There have been more than 200 notable reservoir failures in 20th century in
the world (source CENTRAL WATER COMMISSION DAM SAFETY ORGANISATION,1986)
dams may survive 50 years or sometimes fail in 1 year too. Many cases reported in India itself where dams failed within first 5 yrs.
We are wagering with the lives of people to protect an archaic dam and the potatoes that can be cultivated using the water.
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