Barkha PawarThere have been many instances of climatic crises in the past 1.5 year. And unseasonal rain is one of them, but something new has happened in the Chandrapur District in Maharashtra.
There has been an incident of “soap-like foam” rain. The Pollution Control Board is still investigating the reason behind this incident. Tuesday afternoon, the atmosphere turned cloudy due to air pollution in the Durgapur area just outside Chandrapur.
This pollution caused by the open-pit mining in the area allegedly led to the “foam” rain. The rainfall continued for almost an hour and so did the foam-fall with rain.
The open-cast mine in Durgapur is used extensively for mining coal.
It is claimed by the locals that this amount of heavy pollution was caused due to the Chandrapur Super Thermal Stations exhaust chimneys that let out polluted air high up in the sky.
This soap-like foam is odourless and dissolves immediately after being touched. According to reports on various news channels, the foam could have been the result of heavy air pollution due to coal mining and Thermal Stations.
Experts said that polluted air mixed with water could have turned into phosphate, and increased the weight of the foam causing it to come down with rain water.
Phosphate is found in large quantities in soaps, detergents and washing powders, the laundry detergents contain 35-75% of phosphate salts. Phosphates can cause a variety of water pollution problems. It can cause water bodies to become choked with algae and other plants.
Instances like such foamy rains are new and under researched. The residents are clueless and obviously expect some explanation.
