Three dumptrucks-full of plastic, candy wrappers, empty bags of junk food and biodegradable waste were collected in just four hours, from Tumalog Falls in Oslob town during a cleanup drive which started yesterday. initiated by the local government.
Oslob Mayor Jose Tumulak Jr. said they picked up all sorts of garbage from the footpath leading to the falls, trapped under rocks and suspended at the deeper portions of the river beneath the falls.
“Naa gihapoy mga plastic, putos sa chichiria kay mao man nay kargado. Sa mga lalum-lalom nga part, amo pod nga gilimpyohan kay adto ra man pod ipanglabay didto,” said Tumulak. (We still collected plastics, mostly junk food wrappers. We also cleaned up the deeper parts because garbage is also thrown there.)
Tumulak said that he will call for a meeting with all the stakeholders involved in the tourism activities at the waterfalls during the last day of the clean up on Thursday to assess their practices and craft new measures to protect the site.
The three-day clean up drive, which will last until April 19, Thursday, is participated by at least 50 habal-habal drivers whose main source of income is taking tourists to the falls.
“We need to course this through the stakeholders for them to know that they are really part of this process,” Tumulak told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Similar to Sumilon Island, Tumulak said that they will be imposing new rules and regulations for tourism operations at the waterfalls based on the agreements that they will come up with stakeholders on Thursday.
“Tan-awon nato kung unsa’y resulta unya mag-adjust gyod ta (We will evaluate the results and adjust accordingly),” said Tumulak.
The town mayor said they are still waiting for the Provincial Tourism Office (PTO) to conduct a carrying capacity (car-cap) study on Tumalog Falls in order to control the volume of visitors there.
PTO chief Joselito “Boboi” Costas, who commended the Oslob LGU for initiating clean up efforts, said that they are already working on the schedules to conduct the study.
He said other LGUs including Moalboal, which is also a tourist destination, with its beaches and diving sites, are also in queue for the car-cap study.
Tumulak said that like Sumilon, they will make sure to implement a carrying capacity limit after PTO conducts the study.
At present, Oslob is implementing a 522-visitor limit to Sumilon Island after it reopened to the public on Tuesday.