SHILLONG: The battle to pump out water from the ill-fated coal mine at Ksan in East Jaintia Hills where 15 miners are believed to be trapped since December 13, is far from over as rescuers ended Day 8 of their operation without any success with the huge volume of water inside remaining the biggest hurdle.
The rescue operation has remained focused on first draining out enough water to give the rescuers a fighting chance to go down and locate the trapped miners. However, that has not been possible as water from the river which is connected to the mine keeps coming in thus neutralising efforts to pump out the water.
NDRF assistant commandant (1st Battalion) Santosh Kumar said on Friday operations were on, but there was no positive result. “Extraction of water is being done, but we haven’t achieved the desired level,” he said.
“The more you pump out the water, the more it rises up, it has become like a collection centre. It is a very difficult situation as the rising water level poses a problem. It is very difficult to drain the water though they are using huge pumps but the water is receding by only 1 to 5 inches,” Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong told reporters on Friday.
Stating that the coalfield is very huge and there are caves underneath, he said the water is coming from all sides.
Commenting on the compensation to families, he pointed out that even the number of trapped miners is still not very clear as there are reports that probably 13/14/17 miners might be trapped.
“The main priority is recovering the bodies as most of them are from outside the state,” he said.
