N95 masks, gloves, shovels: How beaches at East Coast Park are cleaned up after an oil spill

As they painstakingly scraped and scooped oil-soaked dust off the shores of East Coast Park, cleaning staff members armed themselves with spades and garbage bags while wearing an N95 mask, yellow PVC health boots, and a pair of gloves.

Larger machines, like excavators, would sometimes move more substantial piles of blackened dust into a pile to make it easier to collect.

It has been almost a year since a Dutch-registered dredger, Vox Maxima, hit the Singapore-registered basement Marine Honour at Pasir Panjang Terminal on June 14 and left an oil flow that ruined many coasts.

Among the shores affected were regions B to H at East Coast Park, which have been&nbsp, closed until further notice. &nbsp,

The affected beachfront at East Coast Park, which extends about 10 kilometers from Tanjong Katong to Tanah Merah, is being cleaned up by the National Environment Agency ( NEA ) every day.