BEIJING: The death toll from a landslide in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing last week has risen to 11, with 50 people still missing and 10 injured, Chinese state media reported on Thursday.
Specialised teams are still working to recover the remains of those who remain unaccounted for, state-run Xinhua news agency said. The confirmed death toll from the collapse of the mountainside on July 17 previously stood at eight.
Meanwhile, China has entered its peak flood control period, weather experts said, with extreme rainfall set to increase in frequency and intensity from late July to early August, with much of northern China set to experience 20 per cent to 50 per cent more rainfall than usual.
Rising temperatures are shifting the rain belt westward and northward across the country, expanding the area of humid and semi-humid climate zones and increasing the risk of secondary disasters, which are exacerbated by factors such as urbanisation and infrastructure construction.
"Climate change is no longer a future problem for China - it's already happening," said Xuebin Zhang, a professor at the University of Victoria in Canada and director of the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium.
Adaptation needs to become a larger part of the response, Zhang said. — AFP
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