Thiruvananthapuram — The Kerala government was gearing up Thursday to meet any eventuality as the water level in the 111-year-old Mullaperiyar dam rose alarmingly to 138.50 feet, a new high in recent times.
Water level rises in Mullaperiyar dam
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The rising waters in the dam, situated 240 km from here in the hilly district of Idukki on Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, had prompted the local administration earlier this week to alert the villagers living on the banks of the Periyar river.
The district administration would have to divert water through the spillway into the Idukki reservoir if the water level rises further.
“I was there yesterday and I could sense that the people on the riverbanks are living in fear. The children and women are the worst affected,” State Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran told reporters here.
“The Vandiperiyar local body is the most vulnerable and there are approximately 2,000 families living along the river. We have made arrangements at 14 schools and two colleges there to rehabilitate them.
“We have sanctioned Rs.2.5 million to the Idukki collector to commence urgent works so as to make roads in the hilly district motorable,” the minister added.
Kerala and Tamil Nadu are at loggerheads over the dam built under an agreement signed in 1886 between the Maharaja of Travancore and the British administration in the Madras presidency.
It granted the Madras presidency the right to construct and maintain the dam located in the erstwhile Travancore and divert the water to irrigate arid lands in Madurai region. Thus, while the dam is located in Kerala, it serves Tamil Nadu.
In recent years, Tamil Nadu has demanded that the storage capacity of the dam be raised to meet the increasing demand of water for irrigation.
Kerala, however, opposes the proposal pointing to the risk involved, as the structure is more than a century old.
After Tamil Nadu this year secured a Supreme Court order permitting the water level to be raised from 136 feet to 142 feet, the Kerala government has responded with an amendment to a bill passed earlier saying the water level must not be raised under any circumstances.
The central government has convened a meeting of the two states’ chief ministers in New Delhi later this month on the issue.