Mullaperiyar..the water bomb

Do you know how difficult it is to live each moment by listening to the footsteps of death? We are counting every second now as the worth of our lives. We count every heartbeat as the life span of our happiness or I can say our safety. I represent those millions of people who live in that 36 kilometers from Mullaperiyar dam to Idukky.

Its about Mullaperiyar, the water bomb is about to explode over 30 lakes of people spread across 3 districts in central Kerala.

It’s not something written on emotions, but based on the facts which are apparently ignored by the world today. Including the media, the politicians, the government, and the human rights commissions etc etc… Doesn’t matter whether they are national or local. The end result is the same. When some natural calamites happen, we often say, if we would have been informed in advance, we could have taken precautionary measures so that we could have avoided the lose of cores including human lives. Here, the scientists and the researches happened in all through these years have been warning us about the safety of the dam, but we never cared. We are still in fool’s paradise, believing that such kind of disaster won’t happen here in India, at least in Kerala. But, how long can we be in such a stupid assumption?

Let’s use some common sense here. In this earth, nothing is eternal. Whatever has been made by human being, everything is vulnerable and expected to have an end. This includes EVERYTHING like the satellites, building, dams, etc etc... In just a word, human made.  This dam has been constructed in 1895 which is 116 years ago. This dam is constructed in lime surkhi mortar when dam engineering was at infancy. The dam has been given a life span of 50 years and after that, it has to be decommissioned.

The history says,

A lease deed was signed between the Travancore Princely State and British Presidency of Madras in 1886 which gave the British the right to divert "all the waters" of the Mullaperiyar and its catchment to British territory (the Madras Presidency, now Tamil Nadu) for 999 years. After Independence, both the entities became non-existent. Further, according to Indian Independence Act 1947, all the treaties between British Government and Indian Princeley States have lapsed. Moreover, Article 131 of the Constitution of India denies Supreme Court of jurisdiction on pre-constitutional agreements. Kerala argued that the agreement is not an equal one, but imposed on the local King by the mightyBritish Empire. After independence, even in the absence of any treaties, Tamil Nadu continued to use the water from Periyar for extending irrigation facilities, and later for power generation on the basis of informal agreements between the governments of the two states.

When the treaty itself not existing now, why should we request TN to approve for new dam? I don’t say that the mistake is only of Tamilnadu. Since we never opposed, they have taken it for granted. 15 TMC of water at a kind of free of cost. No one will say that, “hey man, your dam is in danger. Do something; we will wait till you construct a new dam”. Isn’t it?

Same thing has happened here also. When we don’t have any value for our lives, how can we expect that someone else will care about that? Can you imagine the situation when 15 TMC of water is falling over us? Needless to say, the aftereffect would be more than of an atom bomb.

The dam and its associated area including the river, the starting point of the river is completely under the territory of Kerala. So the dispute is not even coming under Inter state river water disputes act 1956. To take a decision, Kerala really do not need any permission from neither the central government nor from Tamilnadu government. It’s a generosity of Kerala so that TN is still getting water. Have you seen the pipeline carries water to TN from Mullaperiyar? You should see it, only then you will understand how much water they are taking way from the dam. As if, we will drink the entire water in the dam in a single day itself.

From a study conducted by IIT Roorkee, Mullaperiyar falls under the regions with earthquake possibility of intensity 6.4 and they also say that, the dam cannot withstand an earthquake of intensity 5. In this year, already 22 times earthquakes have been happened in these regions. Thankfully, with low intensities. But how long we can be like this? Without doing anything, but expecting that nothing will happen?

They say, no one can impersonate other’s feelings until the same happen to them. It’s applicable here also. When I was discussing with the same with some of my friends, their response was “Oh, my home is not there, so no problem”. It really shocked me. Its not about a few people, it’s about the human being… Lakes of people. According to the pledge we used to take everyday morning in our school, it’s about our brothers and sisters. They how could they say so? I don’t understand. When something happens even in other countries like earthquake in Japan, tsunamis in Indonesia etc etc, we stand with them with our emotions and we empathize with them. Then, why it is not happening now? Are we not an integral part of our country and your life?

To my dear brothers and sisters in Tamilnadu, we have never told that we won’t give you water even if we break this dam down and construct a new one. For the last 125 years, you are living your day to day life with the water given by us with a very nominal price…  Understand that and think as a human being… How can you be so cruel to us? Don’t use the brain of your politicians, use yours and think..  Yesterday also, your CM has told that we are manipulating things. The dam is very secure and whatever Kerala says is not genuine. Can’t she think and say out something? Doesn’t she have sense? Is she a human being? I doubt. Jayalalitha and Karunnanidhi say that Govt of Kerala is spreading fake news about the dam security and this will affect the relationship between the people in Kerala and Tamilnadu. If any disaster occurs, do you think that the rest of the keralites will be friendly with TNs?

What you want? The destruction of Kerala? And whatever is left out, add the southern part to Tamilnadu and northern part to Karnataka so that the name of Kerala should be vanished from this world? Is that you want?

The possible solution is only one. Construct a new dam. But, the current dam may not be able withstand the pressure of construction if we start it now since the proposed location of new dam is nearby to the old one. So, this also can lead to a disaster. Only solution is, decommission the current dam, empty it, demolish it and then construct a new dam. E.g. Dam Victoria in Australia. TN is not just using the water to cultivate their land, but they use it for generating the electricity. The most interesting and f***** fact is they are selling the same vegetables and electricity to Kerala with a very high prize.

In these days, my dreams are about those people who smell death in each and every moments of their life. The people who are my life, my everything, My family, my friends, my hometown which include 3 million people, The place I love since when I opened my eyes for the very first time… each time I talk to my family and friends, I pray to the Almighty to help me in talking to them again and again and again… Can you imagine my pain? my tension? The intensity of my tears when I pray? If yes, please understand that it’s not only of mine; it’s of 3 millions people’s… Its about their lives, it’s about their dreams. It’s about their hopes. It’s about their prayers…

Pray for us... for our long life… so that you shouldn’t say there were a few people lived in the middle part of Kerala….So that the God’s own country shouldn’t be only in memories..

For more details:

http://jamewils.blogspot.com/2010/11/arugments-by-tamil-nadu-and-counter.html?spref=fb

http://jamewils.blogspot.com/2010/11/seismic-threat-to-mullaperiyar-dam.html