The states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala are groping in the dark over the quantity of water that is leaking from the Mullaperiyar Dam.
The Supreme Court had earlier directed Tamil Nadu to submit the details of the exact quantity of seepage in the dam. But Tamil Nadu is not in a position to collect credible data since the seepage happens in many parts in the dam.
At present, Tamil Nadu is measuring the amount of seepage water that spills from the dam to the gallery. (The water that leaks through the gallery inside the dam is seepage water. When the water level in the dam rises, there will be a corresponding increase of seepage water.)
Since the dam is under the full control of Tamil Nadu, the job of the Kerala officials is to record the data given by Tamil Nadu in the register book.
The Tamil Nadu officials measure the quantity of seepage water in the presence of Kerala officials when the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee or the sub-committee visits the dam.
The two galleries are situated 45 ft and 10 ft above the bottom level of the dam, respectively.
Kerala objects to TN data
As per the data made available to Kerala by Tamil Nadu, 97.655 litre of water per minute are reaching the gallery having 10 ft height. In the second gallery, the water reached per minute is 31.752 litre.
According to Kerala, the seepage was 89 litre per minute five years ago. So, Kerala argues that the data regarding seepage now provided by Tamil Nadu is wrong.
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Even Tamil Nadu admits that every year, 35 tonnes of lime are seeping through the gallery of the dam built 126 years ago using limestone-surkhi mixture. Now the seepage is prevented by making boreholes in the seepage area first and then plastering the areas with cement glue.
M.K. Parameswaran Nair, who was former chairman of Mullaperiyar Special Cell, said that at present it was not possible to correctly quantify the amount of seepage water in the Mullaperiyar Dam.
(This article was first published in onmanorama)
