Military arrived in the canton of Orense to guard the affected area, while families try to remove belongings.
Zaruma, El Oro
More than 150 soldiers arrived in Zaruma to carry out controls in the area of the sinkhole, which last Wednesday forced the evacuation of some 300 people due to the collapse of two houses and the risk that others run.
The sector of Colón, November 29 and Alberto Castro streets is guarded after the state of emergency decreed on Thursday by President Guillermo Lasso.
Several residents sought refuge in the homes of relatives or in the enabled shelters.
The Government has indicated that during this period of exception for 90 days, the state of the sinkhole will be analyzed, and then solutions will be found.
First, technical studies will be carried out to determine the causes of the sinkhole that caused the collapse of the houses.
‘Illegal mining has dozens of kilometers of underground excavations under Zaruma’
The matter is not simple. Zaruma, an Orense city heritage of Ecuador, drags a problem under its urban area, where dozens of underground galleries left by mining run. An illegal mining that the residents blame.
It is a problem that has been around for years and was debated in 2016, when a sinkhole affected the La Inmaculada school sector.
Inside the new sinkhole, which from the air looks like a crater, you can see a kind of hole on the side of the wall.
The Vice Minister of Mines, Xavier Vera, said that apparently in this last hole a dome would have collapsed as a result of a discharge that would have caused in the subsoil of Colón Street.
Lasso, last Thursday, said that it was not possible to do a filling work, because the problem could be repeated. “It is a complex issue, but solvable, it requires head, time and financial resources that the Government is going to put,” he said.
From Thursday until yesterday morning, residents continued with the evacuation of their belongings with the help of elements of the Fire Department, National Police, Army and Red Cross.
“We are getting things from my son’s house that with so much effort he managed to achieve, with what is happening I think it will be impossible to return to live in this sector, because the risk will continue due to illegal mining,” said Yuliana Sánchez, who with The help of some relatives shipped the belongings in a rented van.
‘We heard a roar as if it were an explosion of dynamite,’ says a neighbor from the area of the sinking in Zaruma
The electric power service was suspended due to the fall of poles and networks in the area of the sinkhole. Likewise, commercial premises will also have to close their doors, generating economic losses due to the cessation of their activities.
“It has been more than 30 years of service to our clients and today we have to leave because we are at risk,” said the owner of a flower shop located on 10 de Agosto and Bolívar streets, one block from the new sinkhole.
Among the residents there is fear because the danger remains in the area with the breakdown of structures surrounding the area of the sinkhole, on Colón, November 29 and Alberto Castro streets. The authorities reported that the risk perimeter of the sinking was expanded from 25 to 30 meters in diameter.
And although the Government has not specified how many resources will be allocated to address the state of emergency, the residents hope that there will be a definitive solution and no more studies that fail to provide peace of mind.
The president said that a structural and definitive solution is wanted so that the exclusion zone is respected by illegal mining.
Meanwhile, yesterday, the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (MIES) indicated that it manages the delivery of a contingency bonus for natural disasters to support affected families.
Regarding the support, which has not yet specified the amount, the principal of the MIES, Esteban Bernal, indicated that the necessary measures are coordinated with international organizations in order to have the resources. (I)
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