Kerala thwarting repeated efforts to strengthen Mullaperiyar Dam: Tamil Nadu to Supreme Court

The Tamil Nadu (TN) government has told the Supreme Court that the State of Kerala has been repeatedly thwarting the efforts by TN to carry out the strengthening work of the Mullaperiyar dam [Dr. Joe Joseph v. State of Tamil Nadu]..Importantly, the Tamil Nadu government told the top court that the dam is safe and there is no pressing need to have a fresh review of the dam's safety as was suggested by Central Water Commission (CWC) and the Supervisory Committee of the dam through an affidavit filed before the Court on January 27."There is neither deformation nor abnormality in the Dam. Further, silting of the Dam is very minimum. In this water year 2021-22, water was stored in the Dam at a level of +142 ft. from November 30, 2021 for about 18 days, and all the parameters of the Dam were found to be within limits," the response filed by Tamil Nadu said..The Tami Nadu government, therefore, said that that CWC / Supervisory Committee or by its instrumentalities should be directed to carry out review on the safety of the Dam only after completing the balance strengthening works and maintenance works as had been directed by the Supreme Court in 2006 and later in 2014. .Tamil Nadu government has, thus, prayed that State of Kerala be directed to cooperate, and provide all necessary assistance in a time bound manner so that the remaining strengthening and maintenance works are implemented in letter and spirit during the next four months commencing March 2022 to June 2022 before the monsoon season starts. .The Mullaperiyar Dam, situated in Kerala's Periyar River and which supplies water to five districts of Tamil Nadu, has been a contentious issue between the two states. While Kerala has been maintaining for the past few decades that the Dam is unsafe, Tamil Nadu has all along vouched for its safety.At least two legal battles were also fought with regard to the same before the Supreme Court, both resulting in verdicts favourable to Tamil Nadu.The Court had in the past few months been hearing applications by the Kerala government to ensure that the water level in the Dam's reservoir is not allowed to exceed 139 feet, three feet below the permissible limit of 142 feet prescribed by the 2014 judgment of the top court.The Supreme Court had in 2018 passed an order to maintain the water level at 139 feet during the Kerala floods as a temporary arrangement.The Kerala government in its plea filed in October last year year asked for a similar prayer in view of the incessant rains in the State, which had led to a rise in the water level of the reservoir.The Kerala government had later filed a detailed affidavit stating that the 126-year-old Dam is structurally unsafe, should be decommissioned and a new Dam should be constructed.Any failure of the Mullaperiyar Dam could have a cascading effect on the Idukki Dam situated downstream, and the combined failure of the two dams will have a catastrophic impact on the lives and properties of 50 lakh people, the affidavit had said.It had also submitted that in the past few years, erratic rainfall patterns caused due to climate change have led to instances of sudden spikes in the water levels of the Dam's reservoir.In response, the Tamil Nadu government had submitted that the Kerala government was raising the issue of safety in a bid to prevent the water in the Dam's reservoir from being raised to 142 feet as mandated by the Supreme Court's 2014 judgment.The Court has, however, said that it will not go into the management of the dam and water in the reservoir and applications and requests concerning water management of the dam have to be first made before the Supervisory Committee appointed by the top court in 2014