In Court, Kerala Balmes Century Old Mullaperiyar Dam For The Flood, Water Level To Be Maintained At 139 Feet

The Supreme Court has ordered that the water level at the Mullaperiyar Dam in Kerala should be maintained at 139 feet until August 31 in view of the floods in the state.

The SC bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud directed the Tamil Nadu government to ensure that the water level is maintained at 139 feet, which is two feet below the permissible limit fixed by the apex court.

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Earlier the Kerala government had blamed the discharge of water from the Mullaperiyar dam for the flood in Kerala.

Lawyers representing Kerala had told the SC that the Tamil Nadu government had ignored the state's request to control water flow from the Mullaperiyar Dam during the floods and that the Palaniswami government waited till the reservoir reached its full capacity of 142 feet before the water was discharged.

Reuters

The Tamil Nadu Government was requested to gradually release water at least by 139 feet. But no positive assurance in this regard was received from Tamil Nadu even after repeated requests. But the sudden release from the Mullaperiyar dam, third largest reservoir in the Periyar Basin, forced us to release more water from Idukki reservoir, downstream of Mullaperiyar, which is one of the causes of this deluge," the Kerala government's affidavit said.

Countering the allegations made by Kerala, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami said "Kerala's accusations towards Tamil Nadu are false and baseless. If you say, excess water was discharged from one dam then how did water reach all parts of Kerala? The excess discharge of water from 80 dams caused flood in Kerala."

Reuters

He also stated that water from Mullaperiyar Dam was released one week after the floods struck Kerala and that proper warnings were issued first at at 139 feet, second at 141 feet and third warning at 142 feet.

The Mullaperiyar Dam which was completed in 1895 is situated in Kerala but operated by Tamil Nadu under a lease of 999 years. The two state have been engaged in a long running legal battle after the earthen gravity dam suffered damages and developed leakages in following a series of earthquakes in the 2000s.

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A 2009 report by IIT Roorkee stated that the dam "was likely to face damage if an earthquake of the magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter scale struck its vicinity when the water level is at 136 feet.

Citing the weakened structure Kerala had been campaigning for the decommissioning of the dam.

Tamil Nadu however argued that the dam was safe and in 2012 got a favourable verdict from the Empowered Committee, headed by the former Chief Justice of India AS Anand, to raise the water level from 136 to 142 feet after carrying out certain repairs.