Thailand Country Report 2008
Part 1:Natural Disaster Situation in Thailand

1.1
Geographical Characteristics of Thailand
Thailand is located between 5º and 21º N latitude and between 97º and 106º E
longitude, bordering to the North by Laos and Myanmar, to the East by Laos andCambodia, to the South by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by
the Andaman Sea and Myanmar, and covering the area of 513,115 square
kilometres. The weather is warm and rather humid with an average hightemperature of 34◦c and the low of 23 ◦c. As of December 2008, the total
population stood at 65 millions.
1.2
Administrative system
Conventional long form: Kingdom of Thailand
Conventional short form: Thailand
Government type: Constitutional monarchy
Capital: Bangkok
Administrative divisions: 76 provinces (changwat) three types of government
administration: central, provincial and local.
1.3

Typical natural disaster in Thailand

Similar to neighboring countries, Thailand has been affected by natural disasterincluding flood, landslides, urban fire, bush fire, windstorm, drought, thunderboltinduced disaster, hail storm and epidemic. Only in 2004, the country faced for thefirst time in history the tsunami generated by the giant earthquake nearIndonesia.
1.4

The Past Disaster Statistics

Year

Disastertypes

Frequency(time)

PeopleKilledTotal affectedpeople

2007

Flood

36

2,326,179

2007

Fire

45

9,761

25,022,623

2006

Flood

13
(54 provinces)
1901(71 provinces)
6

DamagedValue(USD)
48,224,742

446

6,050,674

275,069,103

2006

Fire

37

9,708

30,967,018

2005

Drought-

11,147,627

216,167,461

2005

Flood

75

2,874,673

1,692,238

1731(66 provinces)1(71 provinces)
12(57 provinces)

Source: Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation

Part 2:
2. 1

Disaster Management System

The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act 2007:

The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act 2007 (DPM Act) has replaced the oldand outdated 1979 Civil Defence Act and the 1999 Fire Prevention andSuppression Act. Entering into force on 6 November 2007, the new Act has 4
as of February 2009, ADRC

1 of 5

prominent features, including 1) Introducing 3 main policy- making and planningbodies including National, Provincial and Bangkok Metropolitan, 2) Having Prime
Minister or an designated Deputy Minister as the National Commander, 3)
Empowering Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) as the core
government department in handling national disaster management work, and 4)
Authorizing local governments to take responsibility of disaster management intheir respective areas, in line with the Provincial Plan.
According to the new DPM Act, disaster can be classified into 3 categories namely:
1) Man-made and natural disasters; 2) Disaster resulted from air raid during
wartime; and 3) Disaster resulted from sabotage or terrorist attack.
In terms of policy making, there are 3 levels: National, Provincial and Bangkok
Metropolitan Administration level, which are chaired by the Prime Minister or andesignated Deputy Minister, Provincial Governor, and the Bangkok Governor
respectively. Each of three- policy- making organ is composed of the committee
as follows:(1) The National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Committee(NDPMC)
Members of the committee come from various Ministries relevant to disastermanagement, i.e. Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Agricultureand Cooperatives, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Ministry ofNational Resources and Environment, Ministry of Information, Communication andTechnology, Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Finance, and so on. The PrimeMinister or designated Deputy Prime Minister is a chairperson, and DirectorGeneral of Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) is thesecretariat of the committee. The Committee has prominent tasks andresponsibilities for proposing the policy to formulate the National Disaster
Prevention and Mitigation Plan, and effectively integrating the development on
disaster prevention and mitigation mechanism among government agencies, localadministrations, and other relevant private sectors.
(2) The Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Committee
The Provincial Governor as the Provincial Director will be the person responsiblefor disaster prevention and mitigation in his or her own province including
appointment of the Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Committee,
which come from representatives from other provincial disaster management
agencies. The Secretariat of the provincial committee is the Chief of Disaster
Prevention and Mitigation Provincial Office. Their main duty of the provincial
committee is to formulate the provincial disaster management plan under theguideline of national plan.
(3) The Bangkok Metropolitan Committee
Just the same as Provincial Director, Bangkok Metropolitan Governor as theBangkok Director is responsible for disaster prevention and mitigation in Bangkok
and to be the person to appoint the Bangkok Metropolitan Committee composingof delegates from government agencies including Bangkok Metropolitan, DDPM,Universities, and public charities and communities in Bangkok. The Committee has
powers in drafting the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Plan for Bangkok whichshall be consistence to the National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Plan, andother handling the disaster management related activities.

as of February 2009, ADRC

2 of 5

2.2 Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Plan
Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, as the Secretariat of theNational Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Committee, has the responsibility todevise the National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Plan. This is to be done byconferring with relevant government agencies, local administrations, and private
sectors. Once the National Plan is approved, it will be used as a master plan, uponwhich the provincial and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration will be based. The
national plan will be in service for the period of 3 years. DDPM is to make surethat the new plan for the next 3 years is ready for use accordingly.
According to the National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act 2007, the threelevel plan shall have substantial parts as shown in the table below.
National plan
Provincial Plan
Bangkok MetropolitanPlan(1) Guide lines, measures(1) The setting up of(1) establishment ofand adequate budget toSpecial Command Centercommand center wheresupport disaster prevention when ever disasters strike, disaster occurred forand mitigation operations
that center shall beconstruction andsystemically andconstructed and has
authorization for disasterprevention and mitigation
continuouslyauthorities to command
operationand oversee disasterprevention and mitigation
operations and activities(2) Guide lines andmethods for providing aids
and mitigate the impacts ofdisasters in both short andlong term, together with
evacuation procedures ofeffected people,
government services, andother local administrations,
supports effected people on
their public health, public
utilities and communication
system(2) Plan and procedures for
local administrations for
procuring tools,equipments, materials,
hardware and vehicles indisaster prevention andmitigation operations(2) plan and process toprocure materials , tools ,equipment, and vehicle fordisaster prevention andmitigation(3) Relevant governmentagencies and local
administrations shallproceed all operations
under (1) and (2), andshall seek for availability
and mobility of fund
(4) Preparedness
perspectives on support
personnel, equipments andother materials to deploy
upon disaster prevention
and mitigation operations,and capacity building of
those personnel and otherpeople shall be included(5) Guide line on fixing,
recovery and restoration tocommunity right after
disaster(3) Plan and procedures for
local administrations for
procuring an early warning
system and otherequipments to inform
people and communities on
incoming disasters(4) Operation plan fordisaster prevention andmitigation at localadministrations(3) plan and process toprocure signaling devices
or others for notifying theoccurrence andexpectation of a disaster(5) Cooperation plan toother relevant publiccharities.

(5) Coordination Plan with
Public Charity
Organizations in Bangkok

as of February 2009, ADRC

(4) Bangkok Disaster
Prevention and Mitigation
Action Operation Plan

3 of 5

2.3

National Civil Defence Plan B.E. 2548 (2005)

The National Civil Defence Plan 2005 has been developed from thesame plan yearly 2002 by the National Civil Defence Sub-committee authorized toimprove plan. It still serves as the master plan for agencies responsible in disastermanagement in providing guidelines or formulating their operational plans. Theplan will be reviewed and updated by DDPM every three year before proposed forapproval by the National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Committee. The plan
has two parts: the first is of disaster prevention and mitigation, and the other is
Civil Defence for Security (Rear-Area Protection).
2.4 Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation
Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM), according to theBureaucrat Reform Act 2002, has been formed by different organizations
responsible for disaster prevention and mitigation as follows:(1) Civil Defence Division of Department of Provincial Administration;(2) Department of Accelerated Rural Development;(3) Department of Social Welfare, Department of Community Development;and(4) Office of National Safety Council
In 2008, DDPM has 4,220 staffs. Among this number, 1,940 are civil servants andthe rest are permanent and temporary employees.
According to Article 11 of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act B.E.2550, DDPM
is mandated to be central government agency under the umbrella of Ministry ofInterior to undertake the work on disaster prevention and mitigation at a nationallevel. Aside its Head Office in Bangkok, DDPM also has 18 Regional Operation
Centers and 75 Provincial Offices across the country.
2.5

National Safety Council of Thailand

The National Safety Council of Thailand (NSCT) is the other disaster management
policy making body at a national level. Unlike the National Committee on Disaster
Prevention and Mitigation, the main focus of NSCT is man-made and technologicaldisaster management. The council has been established in 1982 on the ground ofthe problem of road traffic accidents in Thailand which annually resulted in thetremendous loss of lives, properties and national economy. Later on, its
responsibilities have been extended to cover the prevention of chemical accident,
occupational accident, accident in home and public venues, considering preventive
measure of fire in high-rise building, accident prevention in subway tunnel
construction, providing education of safety etc. The NSCT is chaired by the Prime
Minister and the committee comprises high level government officials fromconcerned government agencies, president of some charitable foundations and afew scholars. The Director General of Department of Disaster Prevention andMitigation is a member and the Secretariat of the NSCT.
2.6 Disaster Management Approaches
To cope with the disastrous events, Thailand has prominently formulated theDisaster Prevention and Mitigation Act 2007 to be the national disastermanagement mechanism which is overseen by DDPM as the national coordinatingorganization on disaster prevention and mitigation. Moreover, DDPM incollaboration with other related organizations has dealt effectively with disasteras of February 2009, ADRC

4 of 5

management underlining the concept of Total Disaster Risk Management (TDRM)comprising preparedness, response, recovery, and prevention and mitigation, andaccording to the Civil Defence Plan 2005.
Recently, DDPM has developed the effective mechanism of preparedness
perspective through the following approaches:
1) Establish the Ministerial Integrated Disaster Prevention andMitigation Action Plan on Disaster Management focusing on participation of
all involved agencies at provincial and ministerial, private and government
sectors, and foundation and NGOs.
2) Devise the Strategic National Action Plan (SNAP) to provide directionof the country in understanding disaster risk reduction over the next decade inline with the context of HFA.
3) Contribute the concept of Community Based Disaster Risk
Management (CBDRM) to sustainable development: As the local authorities
and community are direct victims of disaster and are capable to reduce theexisting risks, DDPM has continuously implemented CBDRM Project together withamong governmental , non-governmental, private, civil defense , and internationalorganizations.
4) Establish Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Academy (DPMA) to be
the principal training venue in the field of disaster prevention and mitigation forgovernment and private sector staffs and for the general public.
5) Enhance the capacity of local authorities in disaster management via
the following activities:
 Training course of technical and technological know – how development
 Equipping local authorities with disaster management related equipments
and tools
 Allocating annual central budget to local authorities for disastermanagement
 Increasing the numbers of community – based civil defence volunteers.
(government official assistant). Currently, there are approximately
1,087,690 CDVs throughout the country to assist government officials indisaster prevention and mitigation undertaking.
 Providing efficient One Tambon One Search and Rescue Team (OTOS), eachSAR team comprises of 10 members, in every Thailand’s tambon all overthe country (7,255 tambons).
6) Set up Emergency Response Team (ERT) for each type of large-scale
hazards or incidents to operationally coordinate with Director at the provincial
level and officers of the Ad-Hoc Directing Center in case of disaster occurring.
Each ERT will consist of 10 members, including one (1) team leader, three (3) forplanning, and six (6) for operation.
7) Formulate Evacuation Plan, and Drill, in accordance with the Provincial
Civil Defence Plan, every province in Thailand will have to formulate “Provincial
Evacuation Plan” which is corresponding to types of threatening disaster within theprovinces, and have to conduct evacuation drill at least twice a year.
8) Provide the updated information on disaster risk areas for disasterrisk reduction strategy planning.
-----------------------------as of February 2009, ADRC

5 of 5