Rescue operations suffered a setback Thursday when bonehead volunteers accidentally pumped water back into the Thai cave where a boys soccer team has been trapped by flooding.

With crews furiously pumping water out, the unregistered group directed the extracted water back into the ground instead of into nearby rice fields, resulting in a stream returning to the northern Tham Luang cavern complex and hindering rescue efforts, an official said.

“They may have some belief that their technique is effective for groundwater drainage,” the rescue operation’s commander, Narongsak Osotthanakorn said, according to the Bangkok Post.

“Anything that is not in the plan must be discussed with us first.”

Rescuers have been working around-the-clock to pump out as much water as possible so the 12 boys, ages 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach can dive out before new rain hits this weekend.

“We are racing against water,” Osotthanakorn said.

“This morning, I have asked for 13 sets of [diving] equipment to be prepared and checked the equipment lists and place them inside in case we have to bring them out in this condition with less than 100 percent readiness.”

The Wild Boars team had been exploring the cave system after their soccer practice on June 23 when the skies opened up and flooded the network.

Divers reached the group nine days later and have been trying to teach the boys how to scuba dive out — a feat even the elite frogmen say is one of the hardest they have ever faced, involving squeezing through narrow, pitch-dark passages.

And doctors determined on Thursday that the boys were too weak to attempt the treacherous expedition, with three still suffering from exhaustion due to malnutrition after nine days living off nothing but drips of water, CNN reported

By Thursday, floodwater had been drained from a mile of the cave network, but another 1¹/₂ miles was still submerged, and monsoonal rains were forecast for Saturday, officials told The Guardian.

Meanwhile, the Thai military has stepped up efforts for an alternative rescue plan — drilling down into the caves.

Teams were searching for a hidden air hole after the boys told divers they had heard dogs barking, a rooster crowing and children playing while underground, possibly indicating a shaft to the surface.

“Were those hallucinations or did they really hear it? Because that would mean there is livestock nearby or at least a forest, which would make an alternative entrance possible,” Belgian rescue diver Ben Reymenants told CNN.

The hole would also explain how the boys didn’t run out of air, although the Thai navy’s special-operations force has started pumping air into the chamber.

Meanwhile, a team of expert birds’ nest collectors has joined those scouring the jungle-covered mountains above the cave network for a way inside, Agence France-Presse reported.

The team of eight Thai Muslim men from Libong island make their living scaling sheer limestone cliffs and exploring crevices to collect nests made from solidified bird spit — an edible delicacy that can net them hundreds of dollars for every two pounds.

“One member in our team was watching on television and thought, ‘How can we help them?’ ” group leader Abdulrawheep Khunraksa told the AFP.

“We thought that we might have the expertise to help since we have climbed to collect birds’ nests for generations.”