Shillong: Meghalaya is ensuring the involvement of corporate houses in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and engage with them in collaborative initiatives that help mitigate disaster-related problems.

The state is prone to earthquakes, floods, cyclonic storms and landslides, among other disasters. Meghalaya falls under zone V of the seismic map and had witnessed a major earthquake in 1897.

To set the initiative in motion, a state-level workshop on public-private partnership in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation was organised here on Friday. It was inaugurated by deputy chief minister, in-charge revenue and disaster management, R.C. Laloo.

Organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New Delhi, in collaboration with the state disaster management authority, the workshop was attended by representatives of various corporate houses, officials from the state industries department, revenue and disaster management department, heads of district administrations and institutions.

Laloo said though Meghalaya is not a highly industrialized state, it has a fair share of private medium and small-scale industries.

He lauded UNDP for taking the initiative in bringing in corporate houses and the need to partner with appropriate disaster risk reduction activities so as to ensure that disasters does not impede industrial development and industrial development does not lead to any disasters that affect human lives and the environment.

UNDP consultant for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, Shubham Tondon, spoke of disaster risks while referring to unregulated growth cities with weak regulatory bodies and planning.

Stating that there have been 431 natural disasters that killed 1.4 lakh people and affected nearly 15 crore in India between 1980 and 2010, Tandon said that most of the cities in India face urban flooding on a regular basis.

On the importance of public-private participation in disaster risk reduction, he said that corporate houses have a major role and their corporate social responsibility initiatives have been a major incentive for post-disaster investments.

He said Shillong city and the state as a whole has a huge scope for planning, and urged the private sector to be involved not only in development projects but incorporate disaster risk reduction and climate change initiatives in their own activities and projects for sustainability and resilience-building. "Corporates should be responsible for themselves as well as for the community," Tandon said.