Efforts to save ten men from a flooded mine in Mexico have been postponed after the water levels in three tunnels rose abruptly on Sunday
On August 3, the miners became confined when a wall in a shaft collapsed and water from an adjoining chamber flooded into the three tunnels.
Officials said that the water has to decrease to a depth of 1.5m to allow rescuers to break into the tunnels without harm. However, it abruptly rose again to more than 20 metres on Sunday.
The coal mine is situated in Coahuila State, Mexico. The governor of Coahuila State said, “The water was flowing into the tunnels from an adjacent unused mine.”
The water level in tunnel number two, which had risen to 70cm since Friday and could permit access to aid, rose to 12.92m on Sunday. At tunnels 3 and 4, the water flooded up to 15.5m and 12.5m, respectively, higher than the 8 to 10cm measured on Friday.
Governor Miguel Riquelme said, “Engineers are making efforts to find the root cause of the leak so that they can stop it. Approximately 200 million litres have been pumped from the tunnels up till now.
Several hundred people mobilized
However, the rescue work has been delayed by many setbacks. Last week, a special underwater drone supporting a camera was lowered into one of the tunnels.
Families of the miners had hoped that the drone would bring them long-awaited news of their loved ones, who had been missing for 12 days following the accident.
However, the drone failed to get to the depth at which the miners were supposed to have been confined. “There are a huge number of solid barriers and turbulence in the water, which makes clarity very little,” a statement said.
“These are not situations in which we can send rescue teams to search.” The families of the ten trapped miners again conveyed annoyance and anger at the delay of the rescue attempt as well as the lack of communication.
“We want the officials to inform us regarding what is happening.” If they have found out the areas from which the water was leaking through and why”, a member of miner Sergio Cruz’s family said.
Priests in the area have been urging people to pray for the miner’s rescue.
