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Bill to raise powers of Dam Safety Authority

Special Correspondent

Special session of Kerala Assembly begins tomorrow

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Irrigation and Water Conservation (Amendment) Bill, to be considered by the special session of the Assembly on Tuesday, seeks to prohibit the raising of the water level in the Mullaperiyar dam beyond 136 feet.

The Bill proposes to enhance the powers of the Dam Safety Authority to evaluate safety and security of all dams in the State and give directions on measures to be taken to ensure safety, including the decommissioning of dams. The Bills seeks to include 10 old dams in the State in a separate schedule and fix their reservoir levels. It says that no Government, custodian of dam or any other agency shall increase the full reservoir level of the dams specified in the schedule notwithstanding any other law, judgment, decree, order or direction of any court or any treaty, contract or agreement. The Authority, however, will have the powers to permit works for increasing the storage capacity of dams.

The Authority will have wide ranging powers to oversee the safety and other aspects of the dam on enactment of the Bill. It can direct the custodian of any dam to suspend the functioning of any dam, to decommission any dam or restrict the functioning of any dam if public safety or threat to human life or property so requires. To evaluate the safety and security of all dams in the State, considering among other factors, the age of the structure, geological and seismic factors, degeneration or degradation caused over time;

To conduct periodical inspections of all the dams;

To advise the Government on security measures to be adopted in respect of any dam considering its vulnerability to terrorism, sabotage and the like;

To direct the custodian to carry out any alteration, improvement, replacement or strengthening measures to any dam found to pose a threat to human life and property;

To advise the Government, custodian, or other agencies about policies and procedures to be followed in site investigation, design, construction, operation and maintenance of dams;

To conduct studies, inspect and advise the custodians or any other agency on the advisability of raising or lowering of the maximum water level or full reservoir level of any dam, not being a scheduled dam, taking into account the safety of the dam concerned .

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