Close to 50 volunteers turn up at S'pore's East Coast Park to help in final phase of oil spill cleanup

The volunteers combing the sand for tar balls and other marine litter on East Coast Park beach. - Photo: ST

SINGAPORE: When 18-year-old Michael Ike Chukwuebuka saw a photo of the sea and sand turned black following an oil spill in June, he felt that it was a call to action.

So when the applied chemistry student at Nanyang Polytechnic received an e-mail from the Public Hygiene Council (PHC) asking for volunteers to help remove tar balls and other debris from the sand at East Coast Park, he jumped at the opportunity.