Mr. Sopon Suwannapot, representing the Moo 3 Community-Based Flood Risk Reduction Committee in the Tha Luang sub-district, Ayutthaya province, worked with ADPC to address his community’s risk management challenges that were identified after the 2011 flooding in Thailand.

"It is most important for communities to understand what hazards they face. They should learn about the hazards that exist, build capacity to combat them, and make the process systematic,” said Mr. Suwannapot.

The day highlighted the utilization of traditional, indigenous and local knowledge to complement modern science in preparing
communities for natural hazards.

“Communities should build from what they already have. They don’t need to wait for help from the outside. First you should help yourself by integrating disaster risk reduction concepts into existing functions in your community,” said Mr. Suwannapot.

ADPC was one of the key partners organizing the event in collaboration with the Department of Disaster Prevention and
Mitigation of Thailand.

ADPC’s community-based disaster risk management program in Ayutthaya is featured in the recently published Empowering communities and strengthening resilience – Thailand documentation. The publication covers a number of community resilience-building initiatives implemented by ADPC and its partners with a focus on community preparedness for response, school safety, disaster-ready health facilities and private sector engagement in disaster risk reduction.

Links:

Asian Disaster Preparedness Center: Empowering communities and strengthening resilience – Thailand (English)

Asian Disaster Preparedness Center: Empowering communities and strengthening resilience – Thailand (Thai)

More photos are available on ADPC’s Flickr site.