MULLAPERIYAR - THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES

'A report by United Nations University, the academic and research arm of the UN, has stated that Mullaperiyar dam, situated in a seismically active area, faces the risk of failure.' This is news report appeared in The Times of India, today. Almost all Malayalam dailies have reported this today. This threat is being highlighted by the entire people of Kerala for years, especially thousands of people living in this dangerous area. If anything adverse happen to Mullaperiyar dam the damage would be beyond imagination. According to a study conducted by IIT, Roorkee, if the dam breaks at 136 metre water level, the structure will give way within 12 minutes. The unimaginable rush of water will reach Idukki dam, 36 km away and rise the level by 20.85 metres. When such amount of water reach at Idukki dam in such force whether the dam will withstand the impact is beyond prediction. If any untoward things happen, the population affected will not be in thousands but in lakhs.

When the people of Kerala are not not allowed to reconstruct the outlived dam in their own state with their own money and forced to risk their lives, other dams constructed in the same period in other states are already rebuilt or being rebuilt. Dam in Godavari built in 1852 was rebuilt in 1982. Dam in Krishna river in Vijayawada in 1855 too has been rebuilt. Dam built in Mahanadi in Cuttack in the same period is also  understood to be getting reconstructed. Why Mullaperiyar alone is not allowed to be reconstructed. Who can answer the immense loss of human life if something happens?

K V George



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