MULLAPERIYAR -COMMITTEE FOR PREPARING AN EMERGENCY ACTION PLAN (EAP)

The Kerala government has constituted a technical committee for preparing an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) for the downstream part of the Mullaperiyar dam in Idukki district.
Headed by the Chief Engineer (Inter-State Waters), Irrigation department, the six-member technical committee is expected to draft and submit the EAP within three months.
The court-appointed supervisory committee on the Mullaperiyar dam, in its 15th meeting in June, had directed Kerala and Tamil Nadu to update the EAP for the dam.
Earlier this month, the Water Resources Department issued orders creating the technical committee for preparing the EAP “downstream of the Mullaperiyar dam (Kerala part) in line with the provisions of the Dam Safety Act, 2021 and guidelines issued by the Central Water Commission for developing EAP for dams
The technical panel has been created on the basis of a request placed by the Chief Engineer in September for drafting the EAP. The committee is required to submit the EAP within three months.

Mullaperiyar Dam

It was built in 1895 on the Periyar River in the Idukki district of Kerala.
It is situated high up in the Western Ghats, adjacent to Kerala’s famed Periyar wildlife sanctuary.
Mullaperiyar is listed among the world’s big dams that need to be decommissioned in a report by the UN University – Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
It has been stated that the Mullaperiyar dam, situated in a seismically active area, faces the risk of failure.
The ageing of large dams is an emerging global development issue as they pose threats to human safety and the environment.
Decommissioning Mullaperiyar is strongly opposed by Tamil Nadu state, which inherited a lease agreement between the former princely state of Travancore (now Kerala) and the British government.
The matter is still subjudice in the Supreme Court.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB

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