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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Mullaperiyar Dam in Danger: Will Tamil Nadu's boon be Kerala's doom? -SG Vombatkere

Mullaperiyar Dam in Danger: Will Tamil Nadu's boon be Kerala's doom? -SG Vombatkere

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published Published on Aug 21, 2018   modified Modified on Aug 21, 2018
-TheCitizen.in

Dam failure a real fear

The current floods in Kerala are unprecedented and clearly a national disaster. In the midst of this disaster, there is fear for the structural safety of the Mullaperiyar dam on the Periyar river.

Madras Engineers Colonel John Pennycuick commenced construction of this 173-ft high dam in 1887, and it was commissioned in 1895. This gravity dam was considered an engineering marvel of those times. With the dam’s catchment area entirely within present-day Kerala, it diverts some of the water eastwards into Tamil Nadu’s Vaigai river.

This is supported by an agreement of 1886 between the British Madras Presidency and the kingdom of Travancore that gave Madras Presidency rights over “all the waters” of Mullaperiyar reservoir to relieve drought in southern Madras Presidency. Today, even though located in Kerala, Mullaperiyar dam is maintained and operated by Tamil Nadu.

The design water storage level of this 133-years-old, 173-ft high dam is 142-ft. It is reported that this storage level may have been exceeded in the current flood situation, because the inflow from the catchment into the reservoir exceeds the outflow over the spillway and after opening all the dam sluice gates.

This constitutes a threat to the dam structure especially if water rises to near or over the top. This may well lead to catastrophic failure of the dam if the on-going rainfall in the catchment does not abate. Already, the full-scale release of water from Mullaperiyar and 32 other dams in Kerala has caused or exacerbated the heavy flooding in the state.

But apart from the possibility of catastrophic failure, following a technical inspection by Chairman CWC, the water level was lowered from the full water level of 152-ft to 142-ft and again to 136-ft. But following certain recommended strengthening and repair measures, the maximum storage level was again raised to 142-ft by Tamil Nadu.

Kerala has been asking that the water level be restricted to 136-ft since the dam is very old and may not be able to withstand greater hydraulic pressure, possibly leading to dam failure and catastrophic downstream disaster. Kerala also has alleged that there are leaks and cracks in the structure.

Please click here to read more.

TheCitizen.in, 18 August, 2018, http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/2/14728/Mullaperiyar-Dam-in-Danger-Will-Tamil-Nadus-boon-be-Keralas-doom


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