Review needed on Krishna Water Tribunal analysis on Alamatti Dam to save the farmers from dangerous consequences

Computer calculations on the damaging impacts of raising Alamatti Dam indicate the potential to kill lakhs of people of Maharashtra, karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

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Updated on:

15 Feb 2011, 6:27 am

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Prof.T.Shivaji Rao, Director, Center for Environmental Studies, Gitam University and former member of the Environmental Appraisal Committee of Union Government in 1990 when the Alamatti project was placed before the committee for clearance.

Calculations on backwater curve and dam break analysis:

Computer calculations on the damaging impacts of raising Alamatti Dam indicate the potential to kill lakhs of people of Maharashtra, karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The backwater levels get built up during the monsoon depressions and cyclones upstream of the dam so that the backwater afflux causes devastating floods in Sangli, Kolhapur and Satara districts of Maharashtra as had happened during August 2005 causing Rs.600 crores loss. Such Flood havoc drowns many thousands of villagers and kills lakhs of cattle and human populations in the western Maharashtra. Since Alamatti dam will experience not only earthquakes due to its location on a seismic zone but also faces sudden release of flash floods amounting to 3 to 4 lakhs cusecs from dams like Koyna and Warna which are located on treacherous seismic grounds.

Dams in Andhra Pradesh may also collapse:

For ensuring the safety of their dams the engineers are forced to make sudden discharges of river waters which coupled with extreme floods consequent to extreme and prolonged depressions and cyclones caused by global warming effects will inevitably cause Alamatti and Narayanapur Dam breaks sometime or the other and the consequential floods will cause terrible inundation of hundreds of villages downstream of the dam in Telangana of Andhra Pradesh.

Karnataka Minister Requests Union Government to Save Dams:

Infact in 2000 the Karanataka Minister for Irrigation Mr.Patil consulted his expert chief engineers like Angade and Capt. Raja Rao who had experience over Alamatti project and they stated that because of the Koyna dam releases Hippargi, Alamatti and Narayanapur dams in Karnataka may collapse and as a consequence the dams in Andhra Pradesh like Jurala, Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar and Prakasam barrage may also face problems of collapse. Hence the Karnataka Irrigation Minister sent a strong letter to the Union Government to consider these life and death problems seriously and take necessary measures to ensure safety of the dams in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Apathy of states to furnish data to Krishna Water Tribunal on dam break analysis and backwater curves due to Alamatti Dam:

It is stated in the Tribunal report covered under 639 and 640 that no material has been brought to the notice of the tribunal that Andhra Pradesh has taken any serious action against the replies furnished by Karnataka to the objections raised by AP in June 2007 and the replies given by karnataka in July 2007 and it clearly indicates that AP states was not serious in taking up the follow up action against the Alamatti dam. The Brijesh Tribunal stated on page 638 of the report that the statement of the witness of the AP state is not relevant and that the averments in the complaint made by AP state are only of a general nature and vague and the arguments made by Andhra Pradesh are not substantiated by producing evidential papers such as dam break analysis , disaster management, risk analysis and the consequential loss of life to people, cattle population and losses to crops and properties and thereby AP state failed to provide that by increasing the height of the Alamatti dam there will be a substantial injury to the people of Andhra Pradesh.