Danger lurks as panel to check Mullaperiyar waters is in limbo

Thiruvananthapuram: The Mullaperiyar dam is near-brim after incessant rain, but a regulatory panel appointed by the Supreme Court to oversee it remains virtually non-functional.

Even as the water level has reached 133.2ft in the 155ft high dam, there has been no formal understanding on who is authorised to operate its shutters.

The maximum permissible limit is 142ft. Officials, however, point out that there is no risk of the water level reaching 142ft as of now as water flow into the dam has slowed down after June 17. Besides, Tamil Nadu is diverting 2,200 cubic feet water into Vaiga dam every second.

However, shutters will have to be opened in the event of an unexpected surge in the dam level to 142ft.

Moreover, if Mullaperiyar water flows into the already-swollen rivers down the stream, populated areas in many districts will get inundated.

If the shutters are raised all of a sudden as the dam fills up, water will gush out and cause destruction.

If the water level is measured scientifically and water released through the shutters in stages, a significant amount of damage can be avoided.

Mullaperiyar dam is 155ft tall and has a storage of 133.6ft as of now. It will peak to 142ft only if 2.2 TMC water flows in additionally. Officials insist the possibility is remote at present.

The court-appointed panel has been sitting pretty for three years, unable to formulate rules even for the activation of shutters in an emergency. Neither is the state government able to exert pressure to gain its rights.

The panel members are the chief engineer in charge of dam safety at the Central Water Commission and the Water Resources secretaries of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The committee is in charge of the dam since the 2014 Supreme Court verdict. An office was opened for official-level co-ordination, but the panel members meet only once in an year. Neither has it implemented any of the directives of the apex court.

Rules drawn up in 1939 are still binding on the dam. The Central Water Commission set Mullaperiyar water level at a maximum of 136 ft after Kerala petitioned it, but in 2006 Tamil Nadu got permission to raise it to 142 ft.

Kerala enacted a law to keep the level at 136 ft, but the apex court did not approve it. The level was raised to 142, but the court in 2014 proposed a separate panel to regulate the dam's functioning. That gave Kerala also a significant role in its control.

The regulatory panel in 2015 had asked Tamil Nadu to formulate rules for the operation of the 13 shutters of the dam. Kerala then warned that the situation in Mullaperiyar is different from pre-1979 days. As migration has taken place on a vast scale, sudden opening of the shutters would cause a calamity, Kerala pointed out.

Tamil Nadu did draw up rules, but they were not acceptable to the committee, which insisted that they should be revised. However, the neighbouring state has not been ready to do anything further in the past three years.

Neither is Kerala able to press for it. Co-ordination between the two states could have been possible and fears over opening of the shutters as water rises could have been avoided if the new rules are in place.

The monsoon is not intense in Tamil Nadu. They get copious rain in the north-eastern monsoon and take more water in June-July when monsoon intensifies in Kerala.