Decommissioning of Dam was sought a year ago

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  Exactly one year ago in New Delhi, at a national seminar on Mullaperiyar organised by the Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India and Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM), former minister for Water Resources N K Premachandran had called for the decommissioning of the century-old  Mullaperiyar Dam.Referring to the two reports by scientists from the reputed IITs  (IIT Roorkee and IIT Delhi) categorically stating that the dam would not survive an earthquake or flood conditions, Premachandran had called for the application of the Precautionary principle to decommission the dam.Translated as the ‘Foresight’ Principle, the precautionary principle is an approach to risk prevention by taking protective measures against specific environmental /safety hazards, without waiting for the seriousness of those risks to become fully apparent. This approach has been adopted in various international agreements. Premachandran even quoted that the 1992 Framework for Convention of Climate Change, Art 3(3) which said: “Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing such measures.’’Arguing that dams do not last forever, Premachandran also cited the examples of dams that were decommissioned - the old Victoria Dam in Australia and the  Boyds Corner Dam in the US.