Kerala is planning to seek Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to end its anxieties over the 118-year-old Mullaperiyar dam in the context of the Tamil Nadu Government’s refusal to address its concerns regarding the safety of the people living in the downstream reaches of the age-weakened dam.
State Water Resources Minister PJ Joseph told newsmen on Monday that the Cabinet would first discuss the proposal to send an all-party delegation to meet the Prime Minister with the request to intervene in the Mullaperiyar issue and then hold discussions with other political parties on this matter.
At the same time, the water-level in the Mullaperiyar reservoir, which had dipped from 141.2 feet on Saturday to 141 on Sunday, again rose to 141.1 feet on Monday despite the drop in the inflow to the dam from the catchment areas due to abatement in the rains. The rising of the water level took away the relative calm of people in the dam’s downstream areas had on Sunday.
The water level rose on Monday mainly due to the reduction by Tamil Nadu in its offtake of water from the reservoir - Tamil Nadu has exclusive rights over the entire Mullaperiyar water as per an 1886 agreement — to 150 cubic feet per second on Monday from the 900 cubic feet it was drawing per second on Sunday.
Tamil Nadu’s effort is to let the reservoir water level touch the 142-feet mark as permitted by the Supreme Court through a verdict on May 7. On Sunday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam had informed his Kerala counterpart Oommen Chandy about his Government’s resolve to allow the water level to rise up to 142 feet.
Tamil Nadu may not lift the spillway shutters of the dam till the water level rises to 142 feet. This is causing an escalation in the Kerala villages on the banks of River Periyar on which the dam sits as there is fear that the old technology dam cannot withstand such water pressure for a long period.
This is for the first time in 22 years the water level has been allowed to climb above 136 feet. Kerala fears that any breach in the old dam, sitting on a seismic fault-line, due to water pressure could lead to the loss of over 35 lakh human lives and decimation of everything in five districts but Tamil Nadu says the dam is strong and safe, an argument the apex court has accepted.