The Indian city of Bangalore is known not only as the IT hub of India but also the City of Lakes. But recently, residents were shocked when one of those lakes caught fire. Over the last year the surface of two city lakes, Vathura and Bellandur, has become covered in froth. When it rains, white foam runs through streets as if a giant washing machine had exploded in the city. And it really is as though a washing machine did because a lot of that froth is washing detergent (along with an astonishingly high amount of untreated sewage) as I found when I spoke to T. V. Ramachandra at the Indian Institute of Science. Dr. Ramachandra is the scientist who studied the phenomenon and submitted a report to the government back in June. What’s causing this? What’s changed? How does it affect the people?

Here’s my conversation with Marco in the studio of The World:
(You should listen, it’s a radio piece – the web version I wrote is the news report edit)

A toxic lake froths over in India http://t.co/LReLHzkfWs pic.twitter.com/0i8GSNEjl6

— The Observers (@Observers) October 9, 2015