It looks like snow: During a religious festival when devotees bathe in the river, the Yamuna flowing through Delhi sheds white foam. Problem: Foam is poisonous.

Arvind holds a small metal pot with water from the river Yamuna in his hand. He says that he specially came to Delhi from Bihar state because he wanted to thank you for fulfilling a wish.

Peter Hornung
ARD studio new delhi

“I wanted a son, and he’s born now. And now I’ve come to thank the river. But I didn’t know you weren’t allowed to take a bath, so I filled a bottle of water.”

Bath? very dangerous”

Police are now evacuating all those who want to swim in the river by order of the Disaster Control Authority – very dangerous, they say. But they let Arwent go – after he showed them the potty he wanted to fill.

“I know water is poisonous. But it is our tradition. We get water, offer it to God. Water serves as our spiritual purification.”

Religious festival with traditional bath in Yamuna

This week celebrates ‘Chhath Puja’, a religious festival in honor of the sun god Surya, during which believers traditionally bathe in the Yamuna. But since last weekend, thick white foam had formed on the river. Fantastic at first glance photos, which immediately went around the world: women dressed in traditionally colored clothes look like snow in this white mass. But this is just pure poison.

Sewage and dirty water acts as a dye in the river

This is because everything goes into the river, said activist Varun Gulati. “The effluent from untreated sewage and dye works goes directly into the Yamuna. Everyone can see the situation, but where is this dirty water coming from in the Yamuna? Our government is to blame for this problem, and inadequate water treatment and inadequate water treatment . sewage treatment plants. “

1300 km long and dirty

The more than 1300-km-long Yamuna is one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world – and here in Wazirabad, a district northeast of Delhi, almost everything comes together when it comes to environmental pollution: poisonous river water And incredibly bad air in India, especially in the capital of November.

“Fear, be afraid,” said the news portal “India Today”. But the officers only shrugged their shoulders.

Dirty water came from many states

A senior official of Delhi Jal Authority said that you cannot do anything with water, it is someone else’s fault. “The water comes from the states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. It is very dirty because it contains industrial effluents, untreated detergents, pollutants and ammonia that cause foam. But it is not pollution or industrial waste from Delhi.”

Foam dissolve with boats

Scientists refute here that Delhi is one of the main pollutants. The city administration, however, is apparently primarily concerned with attendance. They have now used 15 boats to dissolve the foam. And a reporter from the Indian news agency ANI managed to trace a man holding a water hose on the Jhag mountains from the city side.

He is doing this to remove the foam, he says openly. It doesn’t solve the problem in any way. But at least there are no more new pictures of the toxic pseudo-ice spreading around the world.