Calls for climate action 2 weeks after massive flooding

Wednesday marks two weeks since a devastating flood hit along the border of Nepal and China. The search for the missing continues.

The massive flash floods on August 26 killed 1,358 people on the Nepal side, with more than 5,300 people missing, including five Japanese nationals.

On the Chinese side, the country's state-run media reports that 43 people have died, with more than 510 missing.

Officials in Nepal say 121 people are believed to be trapped in a tunnel.

Nepalese Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told the Guardian newspaper that the disaster should not be seen as a one-off event. He said it should be "viewed in the context of the changing climate in the Himalayas."

He added that Nepal has contributed "so little to climate change," and countries that benefit from larger polluting economies need to "accept a shared responsibility."

Kawashima Katsuhisa, a professor at Niigata University and an expert on disasters caused by snow and ice, said the area where the debris slide occurred is a steep U-shaped valley. He added that both the bedrock and the glacier above collapsed, and the steep difference in altitude caused a large amount of earth and sand to be taken in.

Kawashima assumes that "the bedrock itself has become weak due to a large amount of water entering it, or from years of fading." However, he said that it is hard to determine the exact cause.

He added it is necessary to examine such factors as the weather conditions at the time and the extent of the fading.