Mullaperiyar
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- Pages: 33
Mullaperiyar Living on the edge
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The name is derived from a portmanteau of Mullayar and Periyar. As the dam is located after the confluence of the Mullayar and Periyar Rivers, the river and hence the dam came to be called Mullaperiyar
10/22/08
2
History The dam was built by the British Army Engineering corps. The first dam was washed away by floods, and a second masonry dam was constructed in 1895. The structure was conceived by the British during the colonial rule to divert the waters of the Periyar River eastwards through the construction of a masonry dam, and taking the water from the reservoir through a tunnel cut across the Western Ghats to the arid rain shadow regions of Theni, Madurai, Sivagnga and Ramanathapuram Districts of Tamil Nadu.
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Treaty The Princely State of Travancore was forced to sign a treaty in 1886 in this regard to lease the dam site for 999 years to the then Madras government. The lease provided the British the rights over "all the waters" of the Mullaperiyar and its cathment, for an annual rent of Rs. 40,000. In May 1970, in what is now considered in Kerala as a "blunder" committed by its leaders, the two States signed a formal agreement to renew almost in toto the 1886 lease agreement, which had by then become invalid.
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Dispute By the early 1990s, the total irrigated area in the Periyar-Vaigai basin in Tamil Nadu had been extended by 44,000 acres. This led to a quantum jump in the amount of water required for irrigation, and a worsening of the water scarcity in the four districts of Tamil Nadu . The government of Tamil Nadu has proposed an increase in the storage level of the dam from the currently maintained 136 feet to 142 feet so that more water can be derived from the dam. The Kerala government has opposed this move, citing safety concerns for the more than hundred year old bridge and especially for the thickly populated districts downstream.
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Current status The dam and its surrounding areas are under the control of the government of Tamil Nadu. The Supreme Court of India has allowed for the storage level to be raised to 142 feet. A recent law promulgated by the Kerala government against increasing the storage level has been objected to by the Supreme Court of India, which termed it as unconstitutional.
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Mullapperiyar: Issues of Dam Safety 1. The Mullapperiyar dam is one of the oldest dams in service in the World. We are talking of safety of the 105-year-old dam when the average life span of well designed and well built dams is generally considered to be about 50 to 60 years by International experts.
2. The safety issues relating to Mullapperiyar are heavily interlinked with the safety of the dams of the Idukki project downstream. The fact that the failure of the Mullapperiyar dam could lead to failure of the Idukki dam increases the magnitude of the risk associated with the continued use of the Mullapperiyar dam.
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Dam Failures In the 20th century, around 200 notable dam failures have occurred in the World, killing about 8000 people. It is notable that dam failures do occur in developed countries too.
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The extent of the devastation that could result from failure of Idukki dam is unimaginable. Idukki’s reservoir capacity is about 744000million cubic feet of water with a weight of more than 2100 million tonnes. Mullaperiyar reservoir capacity is about 444million cubic feet. At height of about 2000 feet from mean sea level the energy content of this is about
156,000,000,000,000,000
Joules
This is equivalent to 180 times the energy released by the atom bomb which the Americans used at Hiroshima.
10/22/08
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The flood water will be about 500 meters wide and 140 meters deep in the initial state. As it flows down, the width increases and when it reaches Cochin which is at a distance of about 120 kilometers from Idukki it will be about 7 kilometers wide. The flood water will rise up to a level of 4 meters at Cochin. When it passes Thodupuzha (30mins. after the dam failure) the width may be around 2 kilometers and the depth around 13 meters. It is estimated that 23 lakh people will lose their lives.
10/22/08
32
May God save us all…
10/22/08
33
10/22/08
1
The name is derived from a portmanteau of Mullayar and Periyar. As the dam is located after the confluence of the Mullayar and Periyar Rivers, the river and hence the dam came to be called Mullaperiyar
10/22/08
2
History The dam was built by the British Army Engineering corps. The first dam was washed away by floods, and a second masonry dam was constructed in 1895. The structure was conceived by the British during the colonial rule to divert the waters of the Periyar River eastwards through the construction of a masonry dam, and taking the water from the reservoir through a tunnel cut across the Western Ghats to the arid rain shadow regions of Theni, Madurai, Sivagnga and Ramanathapuram Districts of Tamil Nadu.
10/22/08
3
Treaty The Princely State of Travancore was forced to sign a treaty in 1886 in this regard to lease the dam site for 999 years to the then Madras government. The lease provided the British the rights over "all the waters" of the Mullaperiyar and its cathment, for an annual rent of Rs. 40,000. In May 1970, in what is now considered in Kerala as a "blunder" committed by its leaders, the two States signed a formal agreement to renew almost in toto the 1886 lease agreement, which had by then become invalid.
10/22/08
4
Dispute By the early 1990s, the total irrigated area in the Periyar-Vaigai basin in Tamil Nadu had been extended by 44,000 acres. This led to a quantum jump in the amount of water required for irrigation, and a worsening of the water scarcity in the four districts of Tamil Nadu . The government of Tamil Nadu has proposed an increase in the storage level of the dam from the currently maintained 136 feet to 142 feet so that more water can be derived from the dam. The Kerala government has opposed this move, citing safety concerns for the more than hundred year old bridge and especially for the thickly populated districts downstream.
10/22/08
5
Current status The dam and its surrounding areas are under the control of the government of Tamil Nadu. The Supreme Court of India has allowed for the storage level to be raised to 142 feet. A recent law promulgated by the Kerala government against increasing the storage level has been objected to by the Supreme Court of India, which termed it as unconstitutional.
10/22/08
6
Mullapperiyar: Issues of Dam Safety 1. The Mullapperiyar dam is one of the oldest dams in service in the World. We are talking of safety of the 105-year-old dam when the average life span of well designed and well built dams is generally considered to be about 50 to 60 years by International experts.
2. The safety issues relating to Mullapperiyar are heavily interlinked with the safety of the dams of the Idukki project downstream. The fact that the failure of the Mullapperiyar dam could lead to failure of the Idukki dam increases the magnitude of the risk associated with the continued use of the Mullapperiyar dam.
10/22/08
7
Dam Failures In the 20th century, around 200 notable dam failures have occurred in the World, killing about 8000 people. It is notable that dam failures do occur in developed countries too.
10/22/08
8
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The extent of the devastation that could result from failure of Idukki dam is unimaginable. Idukki’s reservoir capacity is about 744000million cubic feet of water with a weight of more than 2100 million tonnes. Mullaperiyar reservoir capacity is about 444million cubic feet. At height of about 2000 feet from mean sea level the energy content of this is about
156,000,000,000,000,000
Joules
This is equivalent to 180 times the energy released by the atom bomb which the Americans used at Hiroshima.
10/22/08
31
The flood water will be about 500 meters wide and 140 meters deep in the initial state. As it flows down, the width increases and when it reaches Cochin which is at a distance of about 120 kilometers from Idukki it will be about 7 kilometers wide. The flood water will rise up to a level of 4 meters at Cochin. When it passes Thodupuzha (30mins. after the dam failure) the width may be around 2 kilometers and the depth around 13 meters. It is estimated that 23 lakh people will lose their lives.
10/22/08
32
May God save us all…
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