Geologists say sinkhole can serve as well

IF the sinkhole found in a farm in barangay Cambuang, Dumanjug town, stops widening, it can be used as a well due to the presence of water in the area.

Geologist Al Emil Berador of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau in Central Visayas ( MBG-7) said the water that came out of the sinkhole is a strong indicator that  it is connected to a subterranean water system.

“If there’s a sinkhole, it means that there are still hollow portions underground. The gap could be caused by the subterranean river system,” Berador said during a government communicators forum yesterday morning.

Berador said Dumanjug town can dump soil on the sinkhole to level if off.

“They need to properly map the area of the sinkhole if they have plans to in leveling it up,” he said.

The MGB-7 said they don’t have the equipment to determine the size and depth of the sinkhole.

The sinkhole is within the 2.7- hectare farm owned by Susan Inot of Lapu-Lapu City.

Inot said they bought the property back in 2006 for farming purposes.

The sinkhole already ate up a portion of the farm’s eggplant garden, an electric post and a mango tree. Only a solitary coconut tree remains standing.

“I feel blank. I don’t know how I feel about this. I’m just worried that this may cause an accident to others,” Inot told Cebu Daily News.

She said she was shocked on seeing the sinkhole in last Monday’s visit.

Seventy-one-year-old Gertrudes Pisalbon said she lived all her life in baranagay Cambuang in Dumanjug but this is the first time she saw a sinkhole in her backyard.

Pisalbon lives 100 meters on the hill near the sinkhole, but she said she’s not worried that it will reach their house.

“We’ll just keep praying. There’s nothing else we can do because that’s a natural occurence,” Pisalbon said.

She said the lot was originally owned by her in laws but was sold by her husband to Inot’s family.

Pisalbon said a pool of water would often be trapped in the area during rainy days, before the sinkhole occurred.

She said the area is flood prone and they would also see various soil types in the area, including grayish colored soil which they use in treating their hair.

The graying soil is also found in the subsurface of the sinkhole, which is about a quarter of a meter deep from the surface.

“More possible sinkholes will be developed in the area since Dumanjug’s soil is mostly limestone,” Birador said.

He said building structures in the area should be discouraged unless careful and precise mapping will be done.

MGB geologists Jun Lucero will also visit a coastal barangay whose residents claimed to have spotted boiling water there.

Geologist Jun Lucero said they will take water samples and test the water temperature.

He said there’s no volcanic activity in Barangay Looc, Dumanjug tosince there is no existing volcanic center in the area.

Lucero said a waterwell near the coastal area may have been disrupted during the 6.9 earthquake that shook the Visayas last Feb.6.

When they visited the area last Monday, Lucero said he found a waterwell 1.5 meters near the mouth of a river which ran towards the sea in Barangay Looc.

He said the waterwell may have passed through the underground cracks and made a new path that flows out of the shallow potion of the sea in Barangay Looc.