Mexican authorities are preparing an operation Monday August 8 with an underwater drone to allow rescue divers to enter a flooded coal mine where ten workers have been trapped for five days.
“
Today we are going to work with an underwater drone that the Navy has sent
,” civil protection service director Laura Velázquez said during a press conference with President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, who oversaw rescue efforts at the scene on Sunday.
Pumping works in progress
She explained that the device has a high-resolution camera and a light that can record up to 250 meters deep, so that divers can identify possible obstacles "
without endangering
" the lives of divers.
rescuers.
These announcements have caused agitation among the miners' relatives, who hope that this inspection will speed up emergency access.
But according to the plan presented by the army, the diving, via a well, will not take place before the middle of the week.
According to these estimates, the flood level to allow access would be 1.5 meters, against 19.4 meters of water currently.
The government said that pumping work was also continuing to evacuate water from the mine, at a depth of 30 to 40 meters.
"
More than 300 liters per second are pumped (...) and we are rushing to get the water out so that the rescuers can enter
," said President Lopez Obrador, who called on Sunday to increase efforts.
"
Everyone has faith, nobody thinks of anything but rescue
," he said, saying staff on the ground and families remain confident the miners are alive.
Read alsoUnderground miners in Mexico: the president asks rescuers to “do more”
The accident occurred around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, when the miners found, while digging, an area full of water whose collapse caused the flooding.
It is a very dangerous artisanal mine, according to experts, located 1130 km north of the capital Mexico, in the state of Coahuila which provides all of the national coal production.