Idukki diocese of Syro-Malabar church raises concern

Idukki : Days after an opinion piece in a foreign daily that the Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala is “nearing obsolescence”, the Idukki diocese of the Syro-Malabar church on Saturday expressed concern and urged the governments to find a solution soon.

In a statement, the Idukki diocese said that the report on Mullaperiyar posing danger to over 35 lakh people was a matter of concern. “The New York Times report that the Mullaperiyar Dam is in a state of danger, threatening the lives of 35 lakh people, is a matter of grave concern for the people in four districts. The Kerala and Tamil Nadu state governments should address this issue urgently,” Fr. Jins Karackattu, Director of the Media Commission of the Idukki diocese said.

The opinion piece published in the ‘New York Times’ claimed that “the biggest danger is in India and China, where the 28,000 large dams built in the mid-20th century are now nearing obsolescence”. “Mullaperiyar Dam in Kerala, India is over 100 years old, visibly damaged and located in a region prone to earthquakes. Its collapse would harm 3.5 million people downstream,” it said in a report published in September. The church also urged the union government to interfere in the matter as it concerns with two states. The ruling CPI(M) had earlier made it clear its policy that it was for the construction of a new dam in place of the existing Mullaperiyar reservoir, which is a bone of contention with neighbouring Tamil Nadu. It is a masonry gravity dam on the Periyar River of Idukki district in Kerala.

Mullaperiyar dam and its 999-year water lease agreement entered into between the erstwhile royal regime of Travancore and the Madras Presidency had been a bone of contention between the two states for quite some time. Kerala has been pressing for construction of a new dam to replace the existing one, but the Supreme Court had held that the reservoir was safe and allowed the Tamil Nadu Government to raise the water level after completion of strengthening measures.