KL sinkhole: SAR team working on clearing 15m stretch of backlog

The Star

Rescuers searching for the missing Indian national who fell into the sinkhole on Jalan Masjid India in Kuala Lumpur have detected a 15m stretch of backlog from the sewer chamber at Wisma Yakin, approximately 44m from the site.   Fire and Rescue Department director-general Datuk Nor Hisham Mohammad said their work would now focus on clearing the obstruction to the water flow in the sewage pipes.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00I am informing you about the operation that we have carried out overnight until the early morning.

00:07The next operation will start at 5.00 p.m. until the early morning tomorrow.

00:15We hope it will be shorter.

00:17First, based on the two tests that we carried out, namely the release of the water tank on the first day and the second day,

00:30which we carried out, namely two from Ground Zero and two from Wisma Yakin.

00:35From Ground Zero, from the two that we released, and based on our observation in each chamber,

00:43the water did not come out.

00:48Second, we started the process at 12.00 p.m. using two main approaches.

00:56The first is to divert some of the incoming flow and we divert the flow to reduce the water level.

01:05Second, at the same time, we also used two high-performance pump modules, 10,000 and 20,000 liters.

01:16The result, at 4.00 a.m., we were able to lower the water level to 0.8 meters from 1.5 meters high.

01:29We entered the chamber from two directions, up and down.

01:36From above, we found that there was no real water reduction, only 0.3 meters.

01:44But at the level below, we saw that it went down to almost half from the pipe.

01:51After we saw and read the distance of the movement of the camera,

01:56we believe that there is an obstacle in the pipe from the distance of the main hole of Wisma Yakin,

02:037.6 meters above us, causing a backlog to debris, which is estimated to be at least 15 meters.

02:16At 5.00 a.m., we started the effort to remove the backlog.

02:24So, we have started the effort, the team has started to remove the backlog.

02:30Tonight, we will repeat again the method to reduce the water level by closing part of it.

02:37We now know that six have been closed.

02:40We will also mobilize the same pump tonight to reduce the water level.

02:48If we succeed in removing the backlog, we hope that we will see all the images in the shape that I said is estimated to be at least 15 meters.

03:02That's what we're going to do.

03:04At the same time, we have also brought yesterday and this morning,

03:09four experts from the Bomba and Exploration Academy of East Malaysia to see the possibility of diving.

03:18Based on our assessment, the speed of the water behind or after Wisma Yakin,

03:25it is at a rate that we feel that we can only move a little.

03:30But our biggest concern, our biggest risk is the backlog.

03:35And based on our assumption, the backlog will be at least a cubic meter above us,

03:40which is at least 100 cubic meters or 100 tons of fresh water.

03:44So, if we just remove the backlog, we know that the risk to the diver is very high.

03:53So, our priority is to remove the backlog.

03:55This afternoon, we will start to use the method of pulling little by little by teams from three agencies,

04:03namely Bomba, APM and also DBKL.

04:06And tonight, after we reduce the water level, we will start to use high pressure from the IWK.

04:14Once we have a safe situation, we will evaluate it again.

04:18If the situation is safe for us to go down, then we will decide the next step.

04:24But at the moment, I can say that the risk is too high for us to send the team in.

04:31Because the first thing is that the pipe is full.

04:33The second thing is that it is forced from the fear that the blockage will collapse.

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