Why is there toxic foam in Yamuna?

Essentially, the release of poorly treated or even completely untreated sewage is responsible for the frothing and foaming of the river water. Surfactants and phosphates that originate from detergents used in households and industrial laundries, when released in the river untreated, create the foam.

How is toxic foam formed?

When the water gets disturbed by waves, natural waterfalls or artificial falls from river barrages, the fatty layer gets beaten into a froth. Delhi Jal Board Vice Chairman Raghav Chadha claims waste material falls from a height at the Okhla barrage leading to the formation of foam.

What causes white foam in rivers?

Foam is produced as air, introduced in the turbulence of stream riffles, below waterfalls, or as waves break upon the shore, bubbles to the water surface. There are many natural and synthetic (human produced) surfactant molecules.

What is toxic foam?

Devotees bathe in sacred river covered in toxic foam The white froth, a mixture of sewage and industrial waste, formed over the last week in sections of the Yamuna River — a tributary of the holy Ganges River — which flows about 855 miles (1,376 kilometers) south from the Himalayas through several states.

What pollutants are in the Yamuna?

A vast stretch of the Yamuna river is covered with white toxic foam, caused in part by pollutants discharged from industries ringing New Delhi.

Where does Yamuna flow?

It flows in a southerly direction swiftly through the Himalayan foothills and, exiting Uttarakhand, onto the Indo-Gangetic Plain, along the border between Uttar Pradesh and Haryana state to the west. The Eastern and Western Yamuna canals are fed from the river at that point. Delhi lies on which river?

What are the effects of pollution in Yamuna river?

For those who can’t access treated sources, the Yamuna’s polluted waters present serious health risks, including illnesses such as diarrhea, typhoid, cancer, and atherosclerosis.

What is the foam in the Yamuna river?

What causes frothing in the Yamuna? The froth is a sign of a polluted river. Experts say the release of untreated or poorly treated effluents, including sewage from those parts of the city that are not connected to the sewerage network and industrial waste, could lead to frothing.

Why does lake water foam?

The foam that appears along lakeshores is most often the result of the natural die-off of aquatic plants. Once the oils reach the lake surface, wind and wave action pushes them to the shore. The concentration of the oil changes the physical nature of the water, making foam formation easier.

Why is Yamuna black?

Foam floating on the Yamuna River, the main source of water in the Indian capital, has turned the river black and reduced it to a drain.

Is Yamuna River poisonous?

The Yamuna River is frequently blanketed with a toxic foam from untreated industrial wastes. But worshipers still enter the water for the four-day Chhath festival. Every year, the festival season of November brings unwelcome reminders of how devastatingly polluted the water and air around the city remain.

How is Yamuna River misused?

The dumping, levelling and raising of riverbed is visible as close to as 15 metre from active course of water and underneath the road bridges. Approximate area of RIVERBED (inside guide bund) grossly abused by dumping, levelling of construction waste.