After Saturday’s success in bringing down water level at the flooded coal mine in Assam and recovery of three more bodies, efforts to drain out all water to enable the search for at least five more miners who are still missing have met with setbacks as water from the nearby aquifer has filled the quarry, officials said on Monday.
Nearly 40 workers had illegally entered the mine located at 3 Kilo in Dima Hasao district on January 6 when water flooded the quarry probably after they hit an underground source. While around 25 of them managed to escape the nearly 300-feet deep well-shaped mine, at least 9 got trapped. Over the past week, the bodies of four of them have been recovered.
“We have been doing dewatering of the mine round the clock using nine traditional pumps. But while the water level had gone down initially, it has not decreased since Saturday. It appears that water is entering the mine from some nearby source,” informed GD Tripathi, CEO of Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA).
On Monday, six more pumps were brought in from Guwahati. Till evening, three of them had been installed and are operating, process to install the other three are on. Once they are installed 15 pumps will be used to try and bring the water level down.
Apart from them, six other pumps are being used for dewatering nearby mines from where water is suspected of entering the one where the mishap took place.
Though a heavy-duty pump of Coal India Limited, which can pump out 2,250 litres of water per minute, was flown in on Thursday by the Indian Air Force from Nagpur, it is yet to be used at the site.
“We have decided to use the services of local miners to carry out a survey and locate the source of water which is flooding the mine. Will take a call on the future course of action after that,” said Tripathi.
Water level in quarry down by 18 metres: NDRF
Officials from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had informed earlier that the water level in the quarry, which was around 100-feet initially, had gone down by 18.1 metres (around 59 feet). On Saturday evening, around 11.9 metres (nearly 39 feet) of water remained.
“But since Sunday, the water level in the quarry has increased again, despite the continuous dewatering efforts. On Monday, till 5pm, there was around 29 metres of water (around 95 feet)) in the well,” said an NDRF official, on condition of anonymity.