So what if the Mullaperiyar Dam collapses?

Now, its estimated that the Mullaperiyar Dam has a capacity of 443.23 million cubic meters. In other words, for the purposes of calculation, as we ll see later, thats 0.44323 cubic kilometers or 0.44323 km³

It is feared that the collapse of this dam would lead to four districts being submerged.

Lets take a look at the facts.

Ernakulam district covers an area of 3068 km²

Idukki has an area of 5105.22 km²

The total area of Kottayam is 2,208 km²

Pathanamthitta spans an area of 2642 km²

In total, we re looking at an area of 13,023.22 km²

Now, we know from high school that

Volume = length x breadth x height

or,

Volume = area of the base x height

Substituting the values, we have

0.44323 = 13023.22 x height

From this, we get

height = 3.40338257 × 10^-5 km
height = 3.40338257 × 10^-5 x 10³ m
height = 3.40338257 × 10^-2 m
or in simple terms,
height = 3.4 cm

Big deal. During the monsoon, it rains around twice this, 6-8 cm in Kochi. I think we can live with half that. Not that its going to collect and come to a standstill in Kochi. All that water is going to flow into the Arabian Sea anyway.

Mean sea levels increase by 3.4 cm, you say? If you consider the area of the Arabian Sea and the fact that its connected to the other oceans of the world, the rise is negligible. Not that there is going to be any actual rise in the sea levels. All rivers flow into the sea. Water from the Mullaperiyar dam is used for irrigation in Theni, Madurai, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram districts of Tamil Nadu. Groundwater too flows into the ocean. So there is going to be no net increase or decrease in the total volume of seawater to warrant any increase in sea levels.

Thanks to Ms. Amy Bohac, Maine East High School