If you were in Sentosa in June, you would have noticed the ugly stain of black blanketing the blue-green waters at the beach.

Instead of the usual sea breeze with a pleasant hint of salt, a nauseating stench of oil filled the air. The waters, typically inviting, were greasy and black.

The cause: A damaged bunker vessel that leaked 400 tonnes of low-sulphur fuel that affected not only Sentosa, but East Coast Park, Labrador Nature Reserve, and the Southern Islands.

The ongoing cleanup has already seen the removal of some 550 tonnes of oil-soaked sand and debris, with port authorities directing affected parties to make claims against the vessel owner.

This is not the first time the Republic has suffered an oil spill. Notably, in 1989, oil leaking from a damaged chemical tanker in Malaysian waters washed into Singapore waters.

This resulted in a legal battle between the Port of Singapore Authority and the tanker’s owner over how far the latter was responsible for $1.3 million in pollution cleanup costs.

The Port of Singapore Authority won the case, as the court ruled that the tanker’s owners were not entitled to limit their liability to pay for costs.

Citing this example, Justice Philip Jeyaretnam, Judge of the High Court and president of the Singapore International Commercial Court, said that the “environmental rule of law” in Singapore operates by the “consistent and logical application of laws meant to safeguard the environment, with a clear appreciation of the environmental purpose behi...