Project for coastal cleanups a timely winner at sustainability hackathon

Team behind it among contest's five winners that looked at issues like waste and hygiene

- David Sun

A team participating in the Build For Good Environment hackathon had been working on an app for the past month to better coordinate the cleanup of beaches.

But as they were doing so, news of an oil spill from a damaged cargo tank at Pasir Panjang Terminal broke.

So when the hackathon's finale was held on June 22 at the Singapore Management University, judges for the event and other participants repeatedly asked the fivemember Coastal Clear team questions on how they could help in the cleanup.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and the Environment Baey Yam Keng, who was the guest of honour at the event, also asked the team about the app in relation to the oil spill.

He said he hopes for the team to make the app viable during the accelerator phase, which will be from June 29 to Aug 17.

"I did ask the team, is your app going to tell us where the oil is going to, which beach it's going to, so that we can deploy resources in a targeted manner so that we can clean up our beaches faster," he said.