Rising water levels in the Mexican mine complicate the rescue of 10 miners

Rising water level in the shafts of the El Pinabete mine in Sabinas, Coahuila, northern Mexico, where 10 miners were trapped for 11 days, complicated entry and the rescue of workers, authorities said on Sunday, who are already working on a plan to stop it.

In a statement, the National Coordination of Civil Protection (CNPC) of the Secretariat for Security and Protection of Citizens (SSPC), reported this Sunday that in the last hours “the water levels in wells two, three and four of the mine El Pinabete up to 10.44 meters “.

The reduction of the water level inside the coal mine is the main goal of the authorities to try to save the 10 workers who they have been trapped since August 3rd.

Faced with this scenario, the specialists of the Mexican Geological Service of the Ministry of Economy and the Mimosa company have designed a strategy for prevent them from increasingand generate the conditions to save the miners.

complaints, disputes

Meanwhile, the head of the CNPC, Laura Velázquez, told relatives of the miners working for their rescue after they asked for the intervention of foreign rescuers on Saturday and they will criticize the slowness of the Mexican specialists in rescue work.

“Make it clear to the relatives that we will not abandon them, neither they nor the trapped miners. We share the anguish they suffer and know that we are not saving resources to achieve the goal,” Velázquez said.

He pointed out that the civil protection system in Mexico He is one of the most experienced in the world.This is because the country is one of the most vulnerable to natural phenomena.

In addition, he asked the relatives “to have the confidence that we have the knowledge and tools necessary to face the emergency”.

Velázquez explained this in the El Pinabete mine face “extraordinary conditions” due to its contiguity, to the south, with the Conchas Norte mine, abandoned about 30 years ago.

“It has accumulated a very high volume during that time and this will be determined when more information becomes available,” he said.

According to the records, the Conchas Norte mine it is 100 times bigger of El Pinabete, as it includes 1.8 hectares and Conchas Norte has 180 hectares.

Help

On Saturday, when the miners had been trapped for 10 days, their relatives, at a press conference outside the mine, they asked for the help and intervention of foreign rescuers and criticized the actions of Mexican specialists.

The relatives said they were “desperate for the slowness of the rescue maneuvers”.

“If they can’t, we want the help of another (foreign) party,” said one of the miners’ wives, who also requested a new appearance on the site of the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

This Sunday, the Mexican Catholic Church called on the mining industry to do so guaranteeing safety and dignity measures necessary for the miners, who, he said, are among the forgotten workers of this country.

“We have grown accustomed to not claiming the name and dignity of those brothers who work in the mines and other trades that we usually do not look at,” the archdiocese of Mexico said in its editorial in the weekly “From Faith” on this day. .

The collapse reactivated the controversy in Mexico over the shares of mining companies in the coal region, where more than 100 deaths of people dedicated to mining have been recordedaccording to the Pasta de Conchos Family, which brings together the relatives of those who died in the 2006 collapse at the mine of the same name.

Source: EFE

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