Flood Emergency Fund: Mosquito Repellent for Bangkok Flood Shelters

BANGKOK, 6 October 2026. The Rotary Club of Bangkok today handed over 9,000 sachets of mosquito repellent to the Health Department of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to protect people living and working in the city’s temporary flood shelters against dengue fever. It is the first support from the club’s RCB Bangkok Flood Emergency Fund, set up on 27 September as the floodwaters rose, and it went from request to delivery in a matter of days.

Heavy, persistent rain began falling on Bangkok on Thursday 24 September. Over the following four days, more than 330 mm fell in some parts of the city, filling the canals and flooding homes and roads. On Saturday 26 September the Governor of Bangkok, Chadchart Sittipunt, declared all 50 of the city’s districts flood disaster areas. Around 52,000 households were affected, nearly 4,900 people moved into temporary shelters in temples, schools and district buildings, and hundreds of city schools were closed. Many residents told reporters the water was higher than in the great flood of 2011.

By 1 October the water had begun to recede in many areas. When we contacted the BMA in early October, 15 districts remained highly affected, with around 3,000 people still living in temporary shelters and some 200 staff living and working alongside them.

Floods leave standing water everywhere, and that's where mosquitoes breed. August to October is already the peak of the dengue season in Bangkok. The mosquitoes that carry dengue bite mainly during the day; there is no specific treatment for the disease, and it can become severe, particularly for older people and those with existing health conditions. For people sleeping and working in crowded shelters surrounded by floodwater, the risk is very real.

The simplest and most cost-effective protection is repellent on exposed skin. The BMA Health Department already distributes sachets of powder that are mixed with water to make a skin repellent. But with the surge in mosquito breeding grounds after the floods, and with the BMA at the end of its fiscal year, its stock was insufficient for everyone in the shelters, prompting the Health Department to request urgent support.

We were able to respond quickly because we were already working with the BMA. Our club is developing a community-based dengue prevention project with the BMA Health Department, for which we are preparing a Rotary Global Grant with international partner clubs. When the floods came, I asked Rotarian Dr Rapeephan Maude, who leads that project, to ask the BMA team whether there was anything we could do to help.

Our Board of Directors established the RCB Bangkok Flood Emergency Fund on Sunday 27 September, and members and friends began giving that same day. Dr Rapeephan and the team compared suppliers and secured the best wholesale price. The Board of Directors approved the purchase on Monday 5 October, and on Tuesday 6 October, the 9,000 sachets were handed over to the BMA Health Department at Bangkok City Hall 2 in Din Daeng. Rotarian Dr Rapeephan Maude and Rotarian Dr Richard Maude represented the club.

“We mobilised very fast since our first discussion with them, as it is a very time-sensitive need,” said Dr Rapeephan.

The repellent is an urgent first step, but it is not the Fund's main purpose. Most of the Fund will go towards the reconstruction and rehabilitation of schools and community health centres damaged by the floods in Greater Bangkok. Food, water and necessities are already being widely distributed, so we want our support to go where it will last, long after the water has gone.

We are now working with the BMA and district offices to identify where that support is most needed, including in smaller communities that may be less visible and receive less help than others.

I want to thank everyone who made this happen so quickly. My particular thanks go to Dr Rapeephan, who led the discussions with the BMA and turned their request into a delivery within days, and to Dr Richard Maude for his work alongside her. I am very grateful to President Andrew and the Rotary Club of Bangkok South for their generous contribution to the Fund, to every member and friend of the club who has donated, and to the team at the BMA Health Department, who are working tirelessly in very difficult conditions.

Thanks to this generosity, the RCB Bangkok Flood Emergency Fund had raised 146,000 THB by Sunday 4 October. The Fund remains open, and the need will continue long after the floodwaters recede. If you wish to donate, please continue to do so. Every contribution goes directly to flood recovery in Bangkok.

RCB Bangkok Flood Emergency Fund

How to donate

Bank: TTB Bank
Account name: Rotary Club of Bangkok Foundation
Account number: 011-2-82881-9
PromptPay e-Donation: scan the QR code below

Please send your transfer slip to Khun Toi at rotarybangkok@gmail.com, and a tax-deductible receipt will be issued to you.

Email your transfer slip

Dr Jean-Pierre A. Verbiest
President
Rotary Club of Bangkok RY 2026-2027