Barili sinkhole still not plugged

Plans to pave the sinkhole  that dried up  the Mantayupan Falls in Barili town, south Cebu remain undone  a month after the sudden ground cavity appeared on July 11.

The Barili municipal council did not approve  spending  calamity funds to pour concrete on the riverbed where the sinkhole is located,  said Mayor Teresito Mariñas.

He said the council wants the farm owner who had his nearby property  excavated to finance the construction “but Constantine Tanchan is still abroad.”

Sandbags used as an emergency measure to  divert the path of the river away from the sinkhole   helped restore  half of the volume of water cascading down the slope.

“Only 50 percent of water flows through Mantayupan Falls. The rest still goes to the sink hole. Water still seeps through  the sandbags,” said Mariñas,  who worried that the rains  would weaken them.

The mayor said tourist  visits to the nature site and the irrigation of  rice fields are  “back to normal” but stressed that a permanent solution is needed to prevent water from getting sucked into the sink hole.

Tanchan’s organic farm was identified as a factor in the collapse of soil in the  sinkhole  due to earthmoving work by heavy equipment used to build an acccess road to the farm.

The town’s planning and engineering office monitor the site daily and a watchman has been posted there because “we must really be vigilant” said the mayor.

The mayor said he wrote last Friday asking for support from Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, the Department of Tourism and Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale./Correspondent Jessa J Agua