Chennai: Tamil Nadu environment and climate change minister V K Rajeev has faced flak for attributing thick foam in Noyyal river to household wastewater containing soaps and shampoos. The remarks, made during a visit to Tirupur, quickly drew widespread criticism online and from opposition parties, who accused govt of evading responsibility for pollution control.The minister said that domestic greywater containing soaps and shampoos was the main driver of frothing in rivers, adding that products with high phosphorus content can create foam when they mix with river flow.Opposition leaders said the explanation was implausible and insensitive. Former AIADMK minister Sellur K Raju mocked Rajeev’s statement as an “invention”, sarcastically suggesting it deserved a Nobel Prize. He referred to past social media trolling aimed at him over an earlier episode involving thermocol sheets floated on Vaigai dam to reduce evaporation, questioning why similar scrutiny was not being applied to the environment minister’s assertions.AMMK general secretary T T V Dhinakaran accused govt of shifting blame onto ordinary citizens. In a post on X, he argued that pinning severe river pollution on routine household soap use was absurd and reflected a lack of accountability. He warned that protecting industrial violators while ignoring broader failures in sewage and waste management would worsen ecological damage, and demanded stricter regulation of industrial effluent discharge along with stronger sewage treatment infrastructure.PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss said it was alarming for the state’s environment minister to make such a statement. He insisted that river foaming, particularly in Noyyal, is widely understood to be linked to waste discharge, especially textile dyeing effluents in Coimbatore, Tirupur and Karur.Minister Rajeev defended his credentials, saying chief minister C Joseph Vijay appointed him due to his medical background. He asserted that recent statewide water studies and reports confirmed industrial effluents were not to be blamed, but it was the phosphorus in soap products causing such foam.
