Water in Tham Luang cave continues to recede as irrigation experts and volunteers work around the clock to drain flood waters out as the operation to rescue the 12 young footballers and their coach enters its 12^th day today.

Thai PBS news teams at the scene reported that Mr Korbchai Boon-arana, deputy director general of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, had a meeting with officials concerned to assess progress in the water drainage.  He noted an evident drop in the water level in the cavern though he was not able to discuss specific amounts of the water drained out so far.

According to reports from the department, however, since Wednesday morning until around 8pm last night, the water level was declining at a rate of 1 centimeter an hour with the drainage capacity estimated to be 17,000 cubic meters a day.

Authorities are reported to be preparing to stage another evacuation exercise today to test readiness of all units concerned in transporting survivors to hospitals though how and when the trapped football team will be extracted from the cave remains a big question mark.

Despite press reports of the survivors beginning to be given a crash course on diving, a senior official involved in the rescue operation told Thai PBS that having the them dive their way out of the cave is the least desirable option, given their lack of diving experience and the treacherous nature of the passageways that they would have to go through.

“We are exploring all options available.  But whatever option we take has to be risk-free,” he said.