He requested people to avoid unnecessary publicity and clarified that the government's stance was to construct a new dam in Mullaperiyar.
Published Aug 12, 2024 | 3:04 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 12, 2024 | 4:36 PM
Mullaperiyar dam. (Supplied)
Kerala Water Resources Minister and Idukki MLA Roshy Augustine said on Monday, 12 August, that there was no immediate concern regarding the Mullaperiyar dam.
He requested people to avoid unnecessary publicity and clarified that the government’s stance was to construct a new dam in Mullaperiyar.
Augustine assured that if the dam needed to be opened, adequate precautions would be taken and that matters would be analysed under the leadership of the Idukki District Collector. “A special team has been appointed for this purpose”, he added.
The minister addressed the concerns following a meeting at the Idukki Collectorate to assess the situation concerning the safety of the Mullaperiyar dam.
The meeting discussed the necessary precautions to be taken if the dam needed to be opened and the follow-up actions required to address Kerala’s demand for a new dam.
Recently, MPs from Kerala raised the demand for decommissioning the dam in the Lok Sabha.
Following the landslide in Wayanad on 30 July, social media is flooded with concerns about the dam’s safety, and various organisations have started protests calling for urgent intervention on the Mullaperiyar issue.
Advocate Russel Joy, who has been running campaigns for the construction of a new dam in Mullaperiyar dam, had told South First that the dam posed an immediate threat to the lives of millions.
“The dam is 130 years old. When it was built there was no technology to make it prevent earthquakes. If anything happens, the destruction it would cause is unimaginable,” he said.
“The dam stands at a height of 850m. If it gets destroyed, the first thing to get out would be the silt deposit over 130 years. The dam holds around 120 tmc of water in a 64 sq km area. The potential energy of the dam itself is enough to cause damage that is inconceivable,” he added.
Several users on social media also raised demands for a new dam and pointed out that the dam was unsafe.
The dam, commissioned in 1895, is situated in the upper reaches of Idukki across the Periyar river and is operated and maintained by Tamil Nadu according to an 1886 lease agreement for 999 years made with the British government.
Water from the reservoir is diverted through tunnels to the arid southern districts of Tamil Nadu.
People in Idukki have often raised concerns over the dam, constructed using limestone and surkhi — a mixture of burnt brick powder, sand, and sugar.
Mullaperiyar meets the drinking water requirements of the Theni, Dindigul, Madurai, Sivaganga, and Ramanathapuram districts of Tamil Nadu, apart from irrigating 2.19 lakh acres.
Though Kerala has been demanding a new structure to replace the existing one, the Supreme Court held that the reservoir was safe and allowed Tamil Nadu to raise the water level after strengthening the dam.
The proposal for a new dam is also facing resistance as it would be constructed in an earthquake-prone area and would cause enormous destruction to the Periyar Tiger Reserve.
On 29 July, the Supreme Court said that it would hear on 30 September the case to re-examine the validity of the lease deed of 1886.
On 28 July, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin wrote to Union Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav and objected to the Union government considering the Kerala government’s proposal of building a new dam in Mullaperiyar.
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