Report from the BCTFN Committee member at the scene (18/2/08):

I was at the Rong Mu fire site in the Klong Toey area all yesterday afternoon. The displaced people are being well taken care of at a local community playground nearby. They have adequate shelter and are off the ground sleeping on raised pallets with matting. They seem to have plenty of food, bottled water and clothing coming in from many small charity groups that are there right now (general feeling is that these groups will not be there for long) As they are on a playground site they have good washing and toilet facilities. They fire site is in a very poor area and the small houses are/were much more densely packed and they did well to contain the fire as quickly as they did. In saying that, 30 (ish) homes were completely destroyed and I confirmed that 200 are now displaced. Most of these people are documented families but a few are not. Eventually (anywhere from 7 months to 18 months will receive some compensation from the government). The plan is threefold. Step one (continued below...)

Step one is the immediate care of the displaced people which seems to be well taken care of. Step two is to clear the site and put in concrete piling by the end of this weekend. That done the people will gradually move back to occupy their bit of land and with the community they will confirm  who had what and layout the site plan. They will then draw up a list of building materials including steel superstructure, performed concrete floor slabs, corrugated concrete  roofing and concrete flat board walling. This work will take several months but they aim to be fully sheltered ahead of the rains. The third step....(continued below...)

The third step will be equipping the homes with the basic items they lost, furniture, bedding, electrical items etc. To ensure this is done accurately the community will do this as a self policing group. They meet, discuss in front of everyone, what they had before the fire so that no one (were possible) receives more than they had. For the site clearing to go ahead please can BCTFN have a cheque for B 200,000 ready for me this afternoon. I have also collected B50,000 which I will hand over. I have asked that we receive accurate receipts for this and other possible donations.  The community is meeting daily and will let us know asap what the rebuilding cost will be. We can then pass this on to other groups that have offered help, BWG and BCCT etc. Looking at the size of the homes there, the cost of rebuilding a home there would be around B 25,000. Bearing in mind that this was a relatively small fire and the  people will eventually receive some money from the government I think we should not “over appeal” the urgency and needs. I am sure there will be other fires.

BCTFN Committee Member: John MacTaggart (Home Page)

Information about Khlong Toei Slum (aka Klong Toey Slum)
...from Duang Prateeep Foundation website

Klong Toey Slum is Bangkok's largest slum community with some 80,000 residents. The slum is on land owned by the Port Authority of Thailand. Originally slum dwellers settled on the port land as they helped with the construction of the port in the early nineteen fifties. They then stayed to work as manual labourers at the port. Still today many Klong Toey Slum dwellers work at the Bangkok Port or for shipping companies that have their offices in the area.

Klong Toey Slum is a long-standing slum with a well-established community organization. This has enabled the slum to develop more than many other slums and now most of the wooden walkways have been replaced by concrete paths and the majority of the houses have electricity and mains water supply.

In other respects Klong Toey Slum is a typical Thai slum with a maze of narrow walkways leading away from the road. Walking around the slum the visitor is never far away from the smell of cooking, doors are open, people are sitting outside talking to neighbours. Many households prepare foods for sale and residents are almost always friendly to strangers.

Until recently, Bangkok developed without planning. Clusters of shacks built by poor migrants from the countryside grew up on waste land near a source of work. Employers had the advantage of a nearby pool of cheap labour, workers had affordable accommodation near the job.

But as the city attracted more workers, the slums became more crowded and more widespread. Since they were not legally recognized, they were not provided with standard utilities. In most cases there was no adequate drainage system or refuse collection and no clean water supply. There were no roads, simply a maze of broad-walks linking the houses with the outside world. There was no play space for the children, and no schools.

In any case, many of the children had no birth certificates. This effectively barred them from going to state schools. Added to this, the slum people's houses had been built unofficially and were not registered. Legally, they could be evicted at any time. With no outside help, it eventually became clear that if slums were to be improved, they would have to be improved from within, by the people who lived in them.

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