Tuasan killed in Camiguin – The killers still walk unpunished!
Tuasan Waterfall in Camiguin had once been a wonderful hidden paradise. Then greedy people and incompetent engineers came, saw and destroyed.
We already wrote about the “Concrete Madness in Camiguin” on May 12, 2015 and “Rock-Fall because of Camiguin Concrete Madness” on April 27 this year. Already in our first article we wrote: This hill will continue sliding and will only stop when the whole hill is down!
You may safely visit the Tuasan Falls in Camiguin in maybe 10 or 20 years. Do not go up there anymore, the risk to get killed by landslides and falling rocks is much too big. Before you read on, we recommend to read the first article “Concrete Madness in Camiguin” on May 12, 2015.
Below Tuasan Falls
This spring had been extremely dry in Camiguin. During almost 4 months no rain drop fell on the small island in the Bohol Sea. Now, in full Habagat season, heavy tropical rainfalls happen every second day. The damaged hill slopes, deprived from their natural fixation, slide and crash down everywhere. Before the machines dug into the volcanic slopes, roots of grass, scrubs and trees stabilized the hills. After the last eruption of Hibok-Hibok volcano in July 1953, nature needed many years to shape the slopes and stabilize them.
This is the situation below the Tuasan falls today 2016-08-07. The road is again covered by rubble, sand, volcanic ash and rocks. Watch the tree in the red circle:
The roots did hold the hill and did pump water out of the underground. Within a week this tree will vanish. And with this tree the coconut palms on the left will come down. The process of erosion will continue.
Have also a look on the underground. Do you sea any grown rock? Anything that could hold back the sliding? It seems that the engineer who is responsible for this disaster had never played in a sandbox when he still had been a child. This slope is nothing other than a big sandbox with some rocks (former volcanic bombs) embedded.
Above Tuasan Falls
The disaster continues also above the Tuasan falls. Our friends from Itum came down the road from the mountains almost the same time we came up. Unfortunately we couldn’t meet, because of all these instable and very dangerous slopes. Here are some of their impressions.
Photo courtesy of Rob and Gwenn Dunn
This is the same section as in our photos. This picture had been taken 2 days ago. Now it is impossible to come so far down because more sliding slopes and falling rocks and trees have blocked the road farther up towards Itum.
Photo courtesy of Rob and Gwenn Dunn
Photo courtesy of Rob and Gwenn Dunn
Photo courtesy of Rob and Gwenn Dunn
No hope
There is no hope to safely visit the Tuasan waterfalls in the next 10 or 20 years. And if the whole hill starts to slide, there will be no hope for the Tuasan falls. The only solution is to close this fatal road and let nature cover this shameful object of greediness and incompetence. We then can tell our grand-children the sad story of this once hidden paradise, where we loved to splash in the fresh waters of a beautiful waterfall.
[GARD]
Update 09/2016: The sliding now continues during each rainfall or thunderstorm.