Toxic foam floats on Yamuna River as Delhi's air quality remains in 'very poor' category

The toxic foam was spotted floating on the surface of the Yamuna river near Kalindi Kunj in Delhi on Sunday morning as the residents of the national capital experienced terrible pollution levels for the third day in a row. Due to the toxic nature of the water, the city’s water supply has also been affected as the water in the Yamuna river is way too contaminated for consumption.

As far as Delhi’s air quality is concerned, it remained in the 'severe' category as the air quality index (AQI) stood at 436 early on Sunday morning. The Ministry of Earth’s System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) said that Delhi's AQI was 437 on Saturday night wherein the concentration of fine particulate matter (PM) 2.5 was 318. The concentration of PM 10 was found out to be 448. According to SAFAR, Delhi's AQI will improve to the upper end of the 'very poor' category due to the strong surface winds dispersing the air pollutants.

As per the experts, the AQI between 0-50 is considered good and healthy, 51-100 is considered satisfactory, 101-200 is considered moderate, 201-300 is understood to be the poor category, 301-400 is labelled as very poor and 401-500 is marked as severe/hazardous. Vimlendu Jha, an environmentalist, said while talking to ANI, “Perhaps construction activities should be banned for next one week.” He also added that the traffic must be controlled along with other strict actions like shutting down schools or limiting people in private offices.

Reasons behind formation of foam in the Yamuna River

The foam formation of the surface of the Yamuna river could be due to multiple reasons like increased phosphate content due to increased discharge of detergents-containing effluents from the industries. Industrial waste is one of the major reasons for the water pollution in the city and the Delhi government even banned the sale, storage, transportation and marketing of soaps and detergents which do not satisfy the latest BIS standards. Experts have been asking the government to pass a law that would ban the discharge of industrial waste in the river and steps should be taken to reverse the situation.

With ANI inputs