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Accidents and disasters in China
ChinaPolitics

Unstable Tibetan Plateau risks cascading disasters as glacier losses mount in Nepal, China

Experts find downstream erosion is critical to scale of destruction as death toll continues to rise from China-Nepal landslide and floods

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The landslide and flooding sparked by a glacial disaster on August 26 has prompted experts to reassess disaster factors, such as how much debris is downhill. Photo: USGS/Landsat 9/Reuters
Resident Om Bahadur sitsg on the ledge of his damaged house on Wednesday, a week after the devastating flash floods at Baireni in Nepal’s Dhading district. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS
Carol Yangin Beijing
Glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau are likely to become more unstable, which may lead to more collapses and collateral disasters, a senior climate official warns as the death toll from last week’s catastrophic landslide and flood on the China-Nepal border continues to rise.

“Over the past 60 years, the glacier area on the Tibetan Plateau has shrunk by around 24 per cent, with around 7,000 small glaciers disappearing completely,” Gao Rong, deputy director of China’s National Climate Centre, said on Wednesday.

“Looking ahead, the structural stability of glaciers across the Tibetan Plateau will decline further. Glacial disasters are likely to become more frequent and could amplify in destruction and reach through cascading effects.”

02:00
Symbolic funeral held for Nepal flood victims as police collect DNA to help identify remains
As of Wednesday, China had reported 21 people dead and 541 missing following a glacier collapsed at Langtang Lirung on the Nepalese side of the border on August 26. In Nepal, the death toll rose to 1,252 as of 10am Thursday, with about 4,875 people still missing.

Beijing has stepped up cross-border support to its neighbour. Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Wednesday that China’s second batch of emergency supplies arrived in Kathmandu on Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by five DNA identification experts. A third shipment and a second expert team were being prepared.

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