The 116-year-old leaky Mullaperiyar dam, operated by the Tamil Nadu government, is too weak to withstand a strong quake.
The 999 year old contract is no more a water issue, it's an issue with the lives of laths of people. Being one among them, I am not appealing for a mercy to save people's life because if it was a motive then a new dam must have already been built at Iuka, Since this issue started before year 2000.
What I want my readers is to make sure that we know we were going to die before we actually do.
As the case is between two states Kerala and Tamil Nadu things are little complicated here. Only question Kerala has is about life of 35lack people in five districts including Kottayam, Ernakulam and Alappuzha.
For Tamil Nadu, it’s main source of their revenue in terms of electricity which
Tamil Nadu produces from Mullaperiyar which was not agreed in the Dam agreement with Kerala. What Kerala agreed was that the water can be used for serving water supply to seven districts in Tamil Nadu.
Location Details
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River Periyar originates from the Western Ghats in ‘Sundara Malai’ at an elevation of about 1830m above MSL. From its origin, it traverses through an immense cliff of rocks in a northerly direction receiving several rivulets in its course. About 48 Km downstream, the Mullayar joins the main River at an elevation of 845m above MSL and the River then flows westwards.
About 11 Km downstream of the above confluence, the river passes through a narrow gorge. A dam was constructed at this gorge to intercept the flow and it got christened as ‘Mullaperiyar dam’, which received the above title from the rivers Mullayar and Periyar. The dam have a catchment area of 624 square kilometres, which lies completely inside Kerala territory.
Technical Details
The Mullaperiyar dam is having a length of 1200 feet and a height of 155 feet from the river bed and the height from the deepest foundation is 176ft. The front and rear faces of the dam are of uncoursed rubble masonry in lime, surki and sand mortar. The hearting is of lime surkhi concrete with 3.125 parts of stone and 1 part of mortar. The proportion of lime surkhi mortar is 2 parts of lime, 1 part of surkhi and 3 parts of sand.The central core constructed with lime surkhi concrete occupies about 60% of the total volume of the dam. As part of the strengthening measures suggested an RCC capping was added to the top of the dam. Also a 10 m concrete backing was provided to the downstream side, but the joint between the old dam and the new dam remain ungrouted even though shear keys were provided.
THE TRAGEDY
AFTER
People of Idukki, Kerala’s second largest district having several giant, large and medium-sized dams, now feel that they are perhaps sitting on a geological time bomb in the context of recurring tremors, soil piping among hills surrounding a huge reservoir and cracks and leaks that keep on appearing in a 115-year-old old-technology dam due to seismic activities.
SOLUTIONS
Build a large parallel Dam within secure distance from current dam and break current one.
BUT....
Besides the points from internet, We Need a New DAM, but it's not easy to build immediately, since it will take years. Now Kerala is in Zone 3 of earth quake vulnerability, and I think measures to be taken immediately are:
> Reduce water level of dam.
>Take precautions to reduce velocity of flood water, in case the dam bursts.
> Reduce water level of dam.
>Take precautions to reduce velocity of flood water, in case the dam bursts.
>Start disaster management awareness programs immediately.