The accident killed about 2600 people. The failure of the Malpasset dam in France in 1959 killed 421 persons and the Baffalo Creek dam in USA in 1972 claimed 125 lives. Mullapperiyar The Mullapperiyar dam is more than 100 years old whereas the useful life of a well-designed and well built dam is generally considered to be about 50 to 60 years. Thus the dam has already exceeded its normal life time by 40 to 50 years. So, the concern about its safety is not misplaced.
All structures deteriorate over time and become vulnerable to breakage.
So has Mullapperiyar. Hence, it is imperative that measures are taken to replace the dam. In 1979, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Central Water Commission came to an agreement that the maximum reservoir level should be kept low at 136 feet and additional spillways should be constructed to avoid the risk of water level rising in the reservoir. It is notable that Tamil Nadu has not completed the construction of spillways even after 17 years. The spillway capacity is very important from the point of dam safety for as many as 50 per cent of dam failures in the World 1 had resulted from inadequate capacity of the spillways.