Published 18:45 IST, October 28th 2019
Brazilian oil-tinted boy emerges from polluted water, forces action
A boy, Everton Miguel dos Anjos, 13, from Brazil along with his four brothers and several cousins had joined several other volunteers to help clean the beach.
A boy, Everton Miguel dos Anjos, 13, from Brazil along with his four brothers and several cousins had joined several other volunteers the day who were putting efforts to clean the beach and scrub oil off rocks on the shore. Miguel walks ashore in Brazil in dirty waist-high water with an intensely irritating look and his body stained in oil. A photographer captured an image of him and it went viral.
Miguel took his mother's permission to help clean the beach
The picture captured by the photographer shows the boy emerging out of the oil pollution that has been spreading along the coast at Itapuama beach in Cabo de Santo Agostinho, in Pernambuco state, of northeast Brazil for about two months.
Miguel dived into the water wearing a T-shirt but quickly dives out of it when he realized that he was getting dirty. He said that his pictures were published by news organizations around the world and his mother scolded him when she came across his photos. The boy said that he took his mother's permission to help clean the beach to which she agreed but not on the condition of getting dirty.
Environmental activists claim the government is responsible
Just after four days, the photo was captured, the army took a decision to start an operation to clean up the beach and no children will be further allowed to help. The oil spills were first spotted on August 30 off the coast of northeast Paraiba state. It has currently spread along 2,250 kilometers (1,400 miles) of coast, destroying beautiful beaches in a region that is majorly dependent on tourism. Around 200 towns have been hurt due to the oil spills. A group of environmental activists has claimed that the government did not react to the situation and negligent to provide proper resources to deal with the worst environmental disaster ever to hit northeast Brazil.
Updated 00:09 IST, October 29th 2019