Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said in the Assembly on Monday that Kerala is now all set to construct a new dam at Mullaperiyar, the point of a long-drawn water war between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. He said construction would start depending on the outcome of the Supreme Court hearing on the issue on Tuesday.Kerala has been contending that the existing century-old dam was unsafe and had constituted a dam safety authority that it claims was as per Central guidelines. The authority had endorsed the Government stance that it cannot hold more than 136 feet of water safely.The dam and the river Periyar feeding it are located in Kerala. But Tamil Nadu has five parched districts which depend a lot on Mullaperiyar waters. TN had moved the apex court over this and is demanding that an earlier SC order specifying a 142 feet water level be implemented, overruling Kerala. Soon after the SC order, Kerala had amended a Bill passed earlier to stipulate that the water level should not be raised under any circumstances.The two states have had many discussions and rifts over Mullaperiyar down the years. The existing dam was built in 1886 following an agreement signed by the then Maharaja of Travancore and the British ruling the Madras province, which allowed water from the dam to be routed to TN’s arid Madurai belt for irrigation.The Kerala Government needs to consider several allied issues carefully before formulating its stand. While pushing for a new dam, the quantity of water to be released to Tamil Nadu will be crucial. A point of concern for TN, if the new dam comes up, would be that Kerala might insist on a new agreement on its terms scraping the ancient one. Kerala would also need to get the consent from the CWC and the Planning Commission, besides the mandatory environmental clearances, before it can really get down to the job. That is besides finding about Rs 450 crore for the work, at a time when the state is so badly cash strapped that its treasury keeps going in and out of overdraft.
