The most recent sinkhole on Wednesday so far has caused the collapse of four homes.
Zaruma, THE GOLD
Three sectors of the center of the Zaruma canton have been identified as being at serious risk due to land settlements caused by illegal underground mining. From October 2016 until last Wednesday, three sinkholes were registered: two in the urban area and one in a vacant lot.
“This new sinkhole (Calle Colón) is related to mining activity that follows the same line as the mineralized vein. All this is under the urban zone, ”where it is believed that illegal mining extraction works still exist, explained the mayor of the Zaruma canton, Jhansy López.
In the most recent sinkhole recorded on Wednesday, which so far has caused the collapse of four homes, the naked eye revealed the existence of a gallery just under fifty meters from the surface.
Socavón in Zaruma: a problem that not only concerns illegal mining
This fact has led to the evacuation of some 300 people from an entire neighborhood on Calle Colón and has made it clear that one of the many tunnels that this city of 200,000 inhabitants has crosses under the ground.
The dimension of the risk can be determined after a new geological study to be carried out in Zaruma.
According to the historical data of Zaruma, large-scale mining would have started approximately in 1820, with the arrival of the English, French and North Americans, leaving around 67 kilometers of underground galleries as a result of the extraction of gold.
Cristian Torres, general director of Risk Management, assured that in addition to the illegal mining that has been evidenced in the central part of Zaruma, several factors such as wastewater management and the type of constructions concur.
“We are doing the damage assessments of the homes near ground zero,” said the head of Risk Management, adding that in the new sinkhole there was a settlement of about three thousand cubic meters.
About a hundred families that have homes within the perimeter at risk have been forced to evacuate until an assessment is made in the area. “A perimeter of 200 meters around is not habitable,” said the mayor of Zaruma and president of the Cantonal Emergency Operations Committee (COE).
The soil where the houses of the Zaruma canton settled is rocky and clayey, this is revealed in the previous reports that Risk Management carried out. It is there where the Spanish decided to build the buildings where before the 1,500s there was a Cañari-Inca settlement.
According to data from the Municipality of Zaruma, in this town, which is a heritage of Ecuador and a candidate for cultural heritage of humanity in UNESCO, there are around 200 heritage houses, of which about forty are at risk.
This is how the damage in the center of Zaruma due to a sinkhole is evidenced from the air
Cultural Heritage Technicians began to map the affected heritage assets.
The affected residents asked the authorities of the Emergency Operations Committee to consider within the state of exception, in force, the construction of houses in a safe area.
“It seems that the four million dollars that were allocated to the remediation works at La Inmaculada school disappeared,” claimed Vinicio Valarezo, owner of a property on Colón Street, where the most recent sinkhole occurred. (I)
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