Rescue workers suffered a setback in their race to drain water from the flooded cave and extract the team when volunteers inadvertently pumped water back into the cave.
Operation commander Narongsak Osatanakorn said overzealous volunteers working on their own arrived on site and began pumping water into the ground, forcing it back into the partially flooded Tham Luang Nang Non cave in northern Thailand.
"They may have some belief that their techniques are effective for groundwater drainage, but anything that is not in the plan must be discussed with us first," Narongsak told Thai media. "We are racing against water (that is) flowing into the cave although we have plugged its channels."
The volunteers were corrected, and Poonsak Woongsatngiem, an official from Thailand’s interior ministry, told the Guardian that the water had been reduced by 40 percent in the past few days, clearing a 1-mile stretch of cave the boys would need to cross. The boys are about 2.5 miles from the cave entrance.
Communications are also a concern as rescue workers consider extrication options in advance of monsoon rains forecast for Saturday. Authorities have not yet been able to connect a phone line, and a round trip through the winding, waterlogged tunnels between the boys and a rudimentary cave command post that now has a phone takes more than six hours.
Originally Posted by frequent
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