Relief efforts are in full swing following a landslide that buried ten residential houses and one production facility, leaving 29 people missing in Junlian County of southwest China's Sichuan Province on Saturday, according to local authorities.
The landslide occurred at 11:50 in Jinping Village of the county, which is in Yibin City of the province.
Speaking at a press conference early Sunday, Xue Qing, executive vice mayor of Yibin, provided an update on disaster response, rescue operations and the evacuation of affected individuals.
"As of 24:00 on Feb 8, the landslide had buried ten residential houses and one production facility. Two injured individuals were successfully rescued -- one with critical injuries and the other with minor injuries. Both are currently being treated at the Junlian County People's Hospital, neither in life-threatening condition. Results of preliminary investigations indicate that 29 people remain missing, though the final number is still being verified," Xue said. "More than 200 people at risk have been relocated, with 155 of them evacuated to the Junlian County Second Middle School for temporary sheltering. Emergency meal stations have been set up, and 30 emergency generators, 100 tents, 400 disaster relief beds and 1,100 blankets have been provided to meet the basic needs of the evacuees, including food, shelter and heating. The remaining individuals have been safely accommodated with their relatives or friends," he said.
According to local authorities' preliminary assessment, the landslide was triggered by recent continuous rainfall and unstable geological conditions in the area. It evolved into a debris flow, resulting in a debris accumulation area approximately 1.2 kilometers long. The landslide is about 10 to 20 meters thick, 100 meters wide, and has accumulated more than 100,000 cubic meters of mud and rocks so far. It remains active.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, ordered all-out search and rescue efforts to minimize casualties after the landslide.
Xi urged efforts to properly handle the aftermath. He stressed strengthening monitoring and early warning, ensuring the rescue work is carried out scientifically, and guarding against possible occurrence of secondary disasters.
Relief efforts underway after landslide in southwest China's Sichuan leaves 29 missing
Relief efforts underway after landslide in southwest China's Sichuan leaves 29 missing
Smart technologies have reshaped China's ecological and environmental monitoring system, Huang Runqiu, minister of Ecology and Environment, said Thursday in Beijing on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress(NPC).
"Regarding ecological and environmental monitoring, we have been promoting the digitalization, informatization, and intelligentization of the entire monitoring process in recent years, reshaping the ecological and environmental monitoring system. For instance, in water environment monitoring and sampling, we have used intelligent drones which can quickly locate sampling points, collect samples accurately, return rapidly, and they are safe and reliable, improving work efficiency by over 70 percent. They are particularly advantageous for sampling during flood seasons and in remote areas," Huang told the press.
"In terms of environmental sample analysis, we have developed 'lights-out laboratories' in recent years. As the name suggests, these labs operate without lights and are unattended. Through robotic arms, robots, and intelligent management systems, they achieve full-process automation and intelligence from sample handover, testing, and analysis to report generation. This has significantly enhanced work efficiency, increasing it by more than eightfold compared to traditional labs. More importantly, it reduces human interference, human error, and even data falsification," he said.
Thanks to the improved ecological and environmental supervision capabilities, the number of environmental violation cases nationwide has decreased from 130,000 five years ago to 43,000 last year, representing a decline of 68 percent, Huang said.
The minister said China has already applied environmental DNA technology in the biodiversity monitoring work.
"In the field of biodiversity monitoring, monitoring aquatic organisms remains a weak point. However, significant progress has been made in recent years as we have developed environmental DNA technology. Although this chip is very small in size, it contains DNA detection information for aquatic organisms, including the finless porpoise and the Chinese sucker, from 19 state-controlled sections in the Jiangsu segment of the Yangtze River. The results showed that over the past five years, more than 20 species of aquatic organisms have increased in this river section, fully demonstrating the tangible effectiveness of the ten-year fishing ban in the Yangtze River," Huang said while showing a chip to reporters.
The 14th NPC, China's national legislature, concluded its fourth session on Thursday.
Smart technologies reshape China's ecological, environmental monitoring system: minister
