By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Hundreds of domestic and foreign volunteers worked with local residents on the beaches of Taean, South Chungcheong Province, Tuesday to clear away crude oil that has sullied seafood farms and blackened once-scenic beaches.
The beaches are covered by the oil slick and volunteers keep finding cormorants, grebes, other birds and creatures suffocated by it. Six days have already passed since the oil spill, but the government said the collection still has a long way to go. Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Kang Moo-hyun once said it will take at least two months to clear up in the first stage.
Amid the chaos, a large number of volunteers rushed to the scene to help. On Tuesday, 1,000 residents of Cheonan, also in South Chungcheong Province, visited the spot, put on the gloves and masks to shovel up the dirt.
The number of volunteers joining the efforts has increased each day since Saturday, when crude oil from the spill started washing ashore onto the region's picturesque beaches.
The Salvation Army's dining car provided the volunteers with meals and doctors looked after the residents suffering from nausea and fumes.
``I never thought the contamination would be as serious as this. I hope more people will participate in the cleaning work,'' Kim Kyu-shik, a 33-year-old Cheonan city hall staff, said.
After the initial report of the oil spill, The Korea Times has also received several e-mails from Korean readers asking for contact points for volunteering. Some foreigner readers, too, showed a strong willingness to help clear up the environmental disaster.
Reader Aico Peek and others said they would like to go to Taean immediately and help, asking for contact points.
``I just ran to the spot right after I heard the news. This is awful,''' John Scoffield from the United States told Chosun Ilbo newspaper.
Still, Taean needs more volunteers. The county office openly called for volunteers and related equipment such as oil absorbent, rubber boots, gloves, plastic buckets and clothing. ``It was such an unexpected disaster and it was larger than we could ever prepare for,'' an office spokesman said. He said the office is even considering buying the absorbents from Japan or the United States.
The Red Cross, the Salvation Army and other civic groups offered meals to the volunteers who work for absorbing the oil stains in the beaches.
For more information needed for offering help, visit www.taean.go.kr or call 041-670-2345 for equipment and 042-825-1646 for volunteering.