While it looks like warm magical snow, a toxic white foam covered one of India’s most famous beaches in Chennai. The condition has continued for days, thus creating a new pollution hazard for the country.
Even though experts warn it`s toxic, the danger hasn’t stopped tourists from frolicking in the surf-churned white froth, according to the news organization AFP. Children have been playing and taking selfies in the clouds of white suds on Marina Beach, even though they give off an acrid smell and fishermen have been told not to go into the sea nearby.
The situation repeats itself every monsoon season but has been particularly bad this year.
Experts blame heavy rain in recent days that has carried untreated sewage and phosphate down to the sea. The stretch of coast, Marina Beach in Chennai, is the largest urban beach in India and sees tens of thousands of visitors daily. Much of the foam comes from washing detergent residue that mixes with other waste.
Only 40 percent of sewage in Chennai and other big cities gets proper treatment, the researcher added.
Credits: © R Parthibhan/AP/Shutterstock
The foam has the potential to cause skin irritation and damage, and fishermen have been warned to stay out of the water. One fisherman named Jeyaseelan told AFP that the value of the fish he has caught has plummeted to nothing, as locals suspect that the fish are contaminated by the visible pollution on the beach. In 2016 and 2017, pollution run-off caused mass fish die-offs on the coast near Chennai.
On the other hand, visitors and locals seem to enjoy their foamy beach. Word has not got through to the hundreds of families who throng India’s longest urban beach, letting children happily skip in the toxin-filled froth.
“It is definitely not good for people to go into the foam but they just do not understand the risks,” said Pravakar Mishra, a scientist at the National Centre for Coastal Research in Chennai who has seen the clouds of foam grow in recent years.
Sources: Live Science, Science Alert
