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Agence France-Presse

A menacing white foam covered one of India’s most famous beaches in Chennai for the fourth straight day on Monday, creating a new pollution hazard for the country.
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.
Doctors have warned that skin problems could be caused by the foam, which forms every monsoon season but has been particularly bad this year.
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.

The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board said it is analysing samples from the foam which has spread several kilometres along the beach.
“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.
Authorities were also on alert for a repeat of a 2017 incident when thousands of fish were killed by pollution that hit beaches around the same time.
Fisherman Jeyaseelan, 30, said customers do not want to buy even the small amount of fish he has been able to catch in recent days.
“Everyone thinks it is contaminated,” he said. “My wage has been cut to next to nothing.”

Marina Beach has been a centrepiece of Chennai life for more than a century. At weekends, tens of thousands fill the once-pristine sands where the pollution is another sign of India’s struggle to keep up with its growing economy.
Experts blame heavy rain in recent days that has carried untreated sewage and phosphate down to the sea.
Oxygen bar soothes lungs in smog-choked Indian capital, for a price
Torrential rains have lashed Tamil Nadu state, paralysing life in several districts. Schools and colleges will remain closed in Chennai and major cities like Thoothukudi, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram, where large parts remain inundated, media reports said. More rain is expected.
At least 17 people were killed when a 4.5-metre-high compound wall fell on three houses in the Coimbatore district early on Monday while people were sleeping.
State authorities claim they have made adequate arrangements for heavy rains. In Chennai, the state government has set up 176 relief centres. Boats have been kept ready to evacuate people.

According to Mishra, much of the foam comes from washing detergent residue that mixes with other waste.
Only 40 per cent of sewage in Chennai and other big cities gets proper treatment, the researcher added. “The rest flows into the sea and this is what happens.”
Mishra is setting up a buoy to monitor pollution levels in the sea just as Delhi now has a network of monitoring stations for its notoriously dirty air.


“Pollution is now a bigger threat to India’s beaches than the rising seas,” said Mishra, highlighting the sewage, micro plastic that is killing fish and the bags and cups that cover the sand.
Mishra said volunteers had collected nearly a tonne of plastic and other waste in just two hours at a Chennai beach during a recent clean-up.
Additional reporting by DPA


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India

Children play in toxin-laced white foam washing up on beaches in Chennai, India

A child plays in a foamy discharge, caused by pollutants mixed with sea water, in the surf at a beach in Chennai, India. Photo: AFP

TOPSHOT - Residents play over foamy discharge, caused by pollutants, as it mixes with the surf at Marina beach in Chennai on December 1, 2019. (Photo by Arun SANKAR / AFP)

Children play on the Marina beach on the Bay of Bengal coast which is blanketed in sea foam in Chennai, India, Sunday, Dec.1, 2019. (AP Photo/R.Parthibhan)

Residents walk over foamy discharge, caused by pollutants, as it mixes with the surf at Marina beach in Chennai on December 01, 2019. (Photo by Arun SANKAR / AFP)

In smog-choked New Delhi, enterprising oxygen bar soothes residents’ lungs – for a price

An employee prepares aromatic oxygen flasks at the Oxy Pure bar in New Delhi. Photo: EPA

A motorcyclist travels past a worker sweeping a road shrouded in smog in New Delhi, India, on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019. Air pollution levels in India's capital remained at near record levels, forcing schools to shut down through mid week and keeping residents indoors, as the nation grapples for solutions. Photographer: Ruhani Kaur/Bloomberg

Nishika Waghela (33) breathes in oxygen mixed with aromatherapy via a nasal cannula, at an oxygen bar in New Delhi, India, November 15, 2019. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis

‘Chennai has become a small island’: Indian army on war footing to rescue survivors as flood toll nears 270

This photograph released by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) on December 2, 2015 shows an aerial view of the submerged Chennai airport taken from an Indian Air Force helicopter following heavy rains in the region. Thousands of rescuers raced to evacuate residents from deadly flooding, as India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi headed to the southern state of Tamil Nadu to survey the devastation. AFP PHOTO / PIB ----EDITORS NOTE---- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT - "AFP PHOTO / PIB" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS-----

Indian people gather around a residential area that was flooded after heavy rains in Chennai on November 18, 2015. Large areas of the southern Indian city of Chennai have been flooded following days of heavy rain. AFP PHOTO

(151203) -- CHENNAI, Dec. 3, 2015 (Xinhua) -- Indian Army personnel transfer people stranded in flooded areas in Chennai, capital of southern Indian state Tamil Nadu, on Dec. 2, 2015. Chennai is reeling under fresh heavy rains, with large parts of the city completely inundated, flights and trains suspended and hundreds of people left without power. A senior Indian weather official said Wednesday that heavy showers are likely to continue in Chennai for another week. (Xinhua/Stringer)

Indian people collect food from a distribution point after flooding in Chennai on November 19, 2015. Large areas of the southern Indian city of Chennai have been flooded following days of heavy rain. AFP PHOTO

epa05052155 Indian policemen rescue people from flood waters in Chennai, India, 02 December 2015. Chennai was crippled by floods brought on by torrential rains that left thousands stranded in their homes and shut down the city's airport. The Indian navy carryied out rescue and relief operations along with the army, local government and disaster management personnel, Defence Minister Manohar Parikker said. EPA/STR

An aerial view of the submerged Chennai airport taken from an Indian Air Force helicopter after heavy rains in the region. Photo: AFP-

Delhi air pollution driving tourists away and spurring rise in locals looking to leave the city

Air pollution in New Delhi remained at near record levels on Tuesday, with the India Gate monument on Rajpath boulevard still shrouded in smog. Photo: Bloomberg

(191103) -- NEW DELHI, Nov. 3, 2019 (Xinhua) -- People with masks are seen in smog near India Gate in New Delhi, India, on Nov. 3, 2019. (Photo by Partha Sarkar/Xinhua)

An Indigo plane lands amidst evening smog at the Delhi airport in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2019. Two days after Diwali festival, Delhi's air quality continued to hover between the 'very poor' and 'severe' category. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Delhi has 10,000 face masks to give its homeless and most vulnerable, but will they have any affect amid the worsening smog?

Delhi’s homeless are to be given cotton masks to help them survive the city’s choking smog. Photo: AFP

A rickshaw puller passes through fog in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2003. A cold wave in northern Indian has claimed the lives of additional 21 homeless and elderly people overnight, taking the death toll to more than 75. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

An Indian shepherd walks along his herd of sheep amidst heavy smog conditions in New Delhi on November 12, 2018. - Air pollution in New Delhi hit hazardous levels on November 8 after a night of free-for-all Diwali fireworks, despite Supreme Court efforts to curb partying that fuels the Indian capital's toxic smog problem. (Photo by Money SHARMA / AFP)

An Indian school girl wearing a mask takes part in the awareness drive "My Right to Breathe" to protest high levels of air pollution in New Delhi on November 6, 2018. - Smog levels spike during winter in Delhi, when air quality often eclipses the World Health Organization's safe levels. Cooler air traps pollutants -- such as from vehicles, building sites and farmers burning crops in regions outside the Indian capital -- close to the ground. (Photo by Prakash SINGH / AFP)

Doctors warn of health emergency in ‘unlivable’ New Delhi as smog blankets India's capital

New Delhi woke up to a choking blanket of smog Tuesday as air quality in the world's most polluted capital city reached hazardous levels. Photo: AFP

Indian presidential staff members walk surrounded by smog at the presidential palace in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017. A report from UNICEF says about a third of the 2 billion children in the world who are breathing toxic air live in northern India and neighboring countries, risking serious health effects including damage to their lungs, brains and other organs. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Asia

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Chennai’s most famous beaches are covered in white foam, apparently caused by phosphate and sewage
Children are playing in the foam and taking selfies, despite warnings about the pollution hazard



Children are playing in the foam and taking selfies, despite warnings about the pollution hazard.


Environment

Climate change