The power of democracy and Mullaperiyar waters ..

The people of Kerala have been living in fear for the past one month basically because the rains

This is the great power of democracy. The leader of the opposition in Kerala Legislative assembly Shri V D Satheesan of the Indian National Congress party has written to the democratically elected Chief Minister of the sister state of Kerala of Tamil Nadu Shri. M. K. Stalin asking his help and intervention in resolving the Mullaperiyar dam issue bordering Kerala and Tamilnadu in Idukki district in Kerala.

The 70 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) water from the 125 year old Mullaperiyar dam besides irrigating 4 districts in Tamil Nadu and generating 140 MW of power in Tamilnadu, is feeding the 780 MW Idukki hydel power project of Kerala. The present height of water at 136 ft poses a threat to the dam. TN wants the height to be raised to 142 ft so that it has enough potential energy to generate 140 MW power by the time it enters the hydel power project in TN. Kerala wants the height to be reduced to

The fear is that the collective discharge from all the damaged downstream dams of Periyar could endanger the lives of almost 35 lakh people of 5 districts of Idukki, Kottayam, Alleppey, Ernakulam and Trissur in Kerala living in the downstream areas of the dam.

Mullaperiyar details :
Total capacity 433.2 million cu m
Active capacity 299.13 million cu.m.
Maximum water depth 43.281 m (142 ft

Imagine about 300 million cubic meters of water or 300 million tonnes of destructive power gushing along the central parts of Kerala emptying finally into the Arabian sea.

Added to this are the waters of Idukki dam (1460 million cu.m, ie. 5x Mullaperiyar capacity) and ten other dams that will be breached. The combined water discharge can be anyway above 2500 million tonnes of water powering it's way thru central Kerala into the Bay of Bengal along the Periyar river. 

The whole ciy of Kochi, the industries, Refineries, Port Trust, Naval establishment everything could get washed off and Kerala would get divided into North and South Kerala. The people living in the central parts of Kerala are living in fear fearing an imminent collapse of the dam resulting in massive loss of human, animal and plant life besides damage to cash crops and private public property.

The potential energy from Mullaperiyaar situated 880m above Mean Sea Level could be so devastating by the time it reaches the Arabian sea 156 kms away, it could be equivalent to 180 times the destructive power of the atom bomb dropped at Hiroshima (equivalent power of 15,000 T of TNT). The complete destructive power of the atom bombs of Hiroshima and Nagazaki was 40 KT of TNT.

We can expect something similar to happen in central Kerala in the coming days or years if the new Mullaperiyar dam is not constructed across the Periyar. Around 600 years back, around 1341 AD, the Periyar river got breached that led to to the silting and the complete destruction of the ancient Muziris port. This time the damage will be still bigger and more painful. 

It is great to see democracy at work but the most important question is, will the very popular Tamil Nadu CM heed to the Kerala leaders request and help in building the second Mullaperiyar dam downstream and avoid a human catastrophe. We hope MK Stalin would listen to reason this time.

George