5.6 ANALYSIS

Floods continue to pose a significant risk to the country. In addition there are the new threats of technological disasters and the vulnerabilities associated with urbanisation and heavy concentration in the Bangkok metropolitan area. The basic requirement to address these issues is a suitable institutional structure. It is difficult to judge if the current, somewhat fragmented structure is capable of doing that. What seems clear however, is that changes in the institutional structure should come from within the government. It is doubtful if external contributors can do more than support specific activities when required.

It seems therefore that the scope for international assistance in the field of disaster management in Thailand may be primarily in contributing to find ways of addressing technological hazards and urbanisation vulnerabilities. This may be an interesting area to address in Thailand, in particular in relation to similar emerging risks in other target countries. These countries already face some of the same vulnerabilities and risks or are likely to do so in the future. Good lessons may be learned from the experiences in Thailand.