The Irrigation Design and Research Board of Kerala has approached the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) requesting environmental clearance for constructing a new dam at Mullaperiyar.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court had turned down the Tamil Nadu government’s request to stall the Environmental Impact Assessment for construction of the new dam. Requesting party leaders in neighbouring Tamil Nadu to not politicise the issue, Kerala Environment Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan told The Hindu that it was important to think of the new dam in terms of averting a possible disaster and saving the lives of people living in downstream areas threatened by the old dam which was built way back in 1895, and was structurally unsound.
‘Old dam unsafe’
“Unfortunately the building of the new dam has been viewed as a ploy to deprive Tamil Nadu of its legitimate share of water, but the coming up of the new dam will not impact water-sharing between the States,” he said.
In the letter to the MoEF, the Chief Engineer of the irrigation board has submitted that the old dam is subject to seepages and the situation was particularly grave when during the late seventies the Kerala government had approached the Union government for the first time for assistance.
Since then, several strengthening measures have been undertaken from time-to-time, but despite these efforts, the old dam is both hydrologically and structurally unsafe and has been pronounced as such by studies undertaken by both IIT Delhi and IIT Roorkee.
The letter further states that the failure of the Mullaperiyar dam will have a cascading effect on the Idukki group of dams – Idukki, Cheruthoni and Kulamavu – and this will affect the dense populations in Idukki and Ernakulam districts, as also parts of Kottayam, Thrissur, Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha.
By constructing the new dam, the area to be submerged is only 25.66 hectares.
It assures Tamil Nadu that the new dam will continue to supply water to it
