Tests confirm Lytein river water entered coal mine

GUWAHATI: Tests done on water samples collected from the flooded main shaft and the Lytein river in East Jaintia Hills have confirmed that the water which entered the rat hole mine where 14 miners are trapped since last Thursday, is from the river, NDRF sources said.
The director of mines safety, who was present at the site yesterday, had asked the authorities to examine whether the pH (potential of Hydrogen) of samples of water of the main shaft of the mine matched with that of the water of river and abandoned quarries nearby.
Given the outcome, the odds are heavily stacked against the rescue operation, with incessant rain since Monday evening making the mission all the more difficult and dangerous.
None of the trapped miners have been detected till Tuesday evening, as the water level in the main shaft could not be reduced to the desired level with two operational pumps. Four to five pumps, which are old, have broken down during the extraction process.
“We have conveyed the test results to the government. Now that it is confirmed that the river water and the shaft water is the same, it will be very difficult to pull out the water. But, we are putting our best efforts to extract as much water as we can,” Santosh Kumar, assistant commandant, NDRF (1st Battalion), told The Shillong Times on Tuesday evening.
Both water levels (flooded shaft and river) are almost equal, which is why the pumps used by the administration are not giving the desired result.