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More than 70 res­i­dents of Bayshore, Mara­bel­la, are fi­nal­ly back home af­ter be­ing evac­u­at­ed last Fri­day due to an oil leak that con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed the riv­er course from Tarou­ba to Mara­bel­la.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed, there were no vis­i­ble signs of on­go­ing work. The clean-up crews and equip­ment were gone, and apart from a few small oil de­posits, the riv­er ap­peared most­ly clean.

Ini­tial­ly, 57 res­i­dents were re­lo­cat­ed to the Roy­al Ho­tel af­ter fumes from the spill forced them out of their homes, but that num­ber in­creased to 76. On Tues­day, they were giv­en the all-clear by of­fi­cials from Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed to re­turn home af­ter air qual­i­ty as­sess­ments showed con­di­tions were safe. Al­though a faint scent still lingers in parts of the neigh­bour­hood, most res­i­dents said they were sat­is­fied with the clean-up and re­lieved to be home.