SINGAPORE: The entire stretch of beach at East Coast Park has been reopened for all water activities, including swimming and wakeboarding, following the completion of oil spill clean-up operations earlier this month.
With this, all public beaches affected by the oil spill in June have fully reopened with all water activities allowed.
In a Facebook post on Friday (Sep 27), Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said that the water quality along East Coast Park has “returned to normal levels and stabilised since the oil spill”.
Previously, the beach had been reopened in August for only non-primary contact water sports such as kayaking, with NParks advising the public against primary contact water activities for their safety.
Primary water contact activities are those where the whole body or the face and trunk are frequently submerged, and it is likely that some water will be swallowed.
East Coast Park is the last public beach to fully reopen for all water activities following the oil spill on Jun 14. Primary contact water activities resumed at just a section of it a fortnight ago.
The oil spill had been caused by a Netherlands-flagged dredger hitting a Singapore-flagged bunker vessel at Pasir Panjang Terminal.
This ruptured an oil cargo tank, releasing about 400 tonnes of low-sulphur fuel into the sea. The oil slick washed up along several beaches, including at East Coast Park and Sentosa. The beachfronts were then closed for clean-up efforts.
The clean-up operation was conducted in several phases.
The first phase focused on removing the oil slicks and contaminated sand from the surface of the affected beaches. Booms were also deployed to avoid further contamination.
The second phase targeted difficult-to-clean areas like rock bunds, breakwaters and oil trapped deeper in the sand.
The last stage mobilised volunteers to participate in the clean-up and accelerate the reopening of the areas.
Siloso Beach at Sentosa reopened on Aug 3; the beach at Kusu Island reopened on Aug 12; and Palawan Beach reopened on Aug 17.
Tanjong Beach, which had been the beach “most impacted” by the oil spill, reopened on Sep 3, the same day it was announced that all oil spill clean-up operations were completed.
