A Story From the Field: Auntie Boonruean and the Damp Wooden Walkways

Auntie Boonruean chairs the committee of a canal-side community in Khlong Toei district, Bangkok. Most homes here are wooden or half-brick, half-timber houses built shoulder to shoulder. Some stand on stilts over the water. The paths between them are narrow wooden boardwalks and concrete strips just wide enough for two people to pass. In early October 2026, days of heavy rain coincided with high water in the canal. The water rose beneath the houses and into ground-floor rooms, and it stayed for several days.

When it finally receded, Auntie Boonruean walked the community with the local village health volunteers. Every lane carried the same smell: mud, rubbish and drains. Debris that the water had carried in was caught under the houses. The wooden walkways were still damp and slippery. Black mold had started to creep across the timber walls of many homes. The shared toilet block was coated in silt. The community hall, which doubles as a small childcare center, was piled with wet mats and children's sleeping mattresses. An eighty-year-old grandmother at the end of one lane could not stop coughing. Children had itchy rashes on their legs from wading for days, and several residents said they were seeing far more rats than usual.

Auntie Boonruean understood something important. If every household cleaned up on its own, at its own pace, the community would never be clean at the same time. The houses are so close together that germs, mold spores, odors and pests move easily from one home to the next. What the community needed was a coordinated program that covered everyone at once, with a clear organizer, shared resources and specialist support.

This article is written for community leaders, local agency staff and companies that want to help. It explains why dense, canal-side communities are especially vulnerable after floods, why individual efforts fall short, and how a three-way partnership can deliver disinfection fogging and ozone treatment where it is needed most.

Why Canal-Side Communities Face Higher Risks After the Water Recedes

Leptospirosis and waterborne disease. Floodwater in canal-side communities is often mixed with wastewater from drains, rubbish and sewage. Bacteria such as E. coli, along with the organisms that cause leptospirosis, which are spread through rat urine, remain in the mud on walkways, under houses and on floors. Residents who walk barefoot or have cuts on their feet are at particular risk. There is also a higher chance of diarrheal illness from hands that touch contaminated surfaces, and of skin infections from long periods spent in water.

Mold in wooden homes. Timber, ceiling boards, sleeping mats, mattresses and clothing all absorb moisture. When houses are packed closely together and air movement is limited, mold spreads quickly. Airborne spores can make allergies and asthma worse for older people and children, who make up a large share of residents in many urban communities.

Shared spaces used by everyone. Toilet blocks, community halls, childcare centers, activity areas and water collection points are touched by large numbers of people every day. If these places are not disinfected, the efforts of individual households lose much of their value.

Limited resources. Many families depend on daily wages and must return to work as soon as possible. They often cannot afford disinfectant or professional services. Older residents living alone may not have the strength to clean their homes thoroughly at all.

Mosquitoes and other pests. Water trapped under houses and in containers around the community becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes, raising the risk of dengue fever in the weeks after a flood. Rats displaced by the water move into homes and storage areas looking for food.

Why Everyone-for-Themselves Is Not Enough

Improvised bleach solutions. Each household mixes its own. Some make it far too strong, causing stinging eyes and noses in cramped rooms; others dilute it so much that it hardly works. Bleach also fails to reach mold inside wood and fabric.

Some homes cleaned, others not. A home that has been cleaned still receives odors, mold spores and pests from the house next door that has not been treated yet. In a community where walls are shared and walkways connect every door, partial coverage does not hold.

Incense, perfume or fans. These cover the smell or push spores somewhere else, but they do not remove the source.

Shared spaces are forgotten. Everyone focuses on their own home, so the toilet block, the community hall and the walkways are left untouched. They become the main route for germs to spread across the community.

The answer is not to ask families to do more on their own. It is to organize the work so that the whole community is covered, the most vulnerable people are protected first, and specialist tasks are done by people trained to do them safely.

The Solution: A Three-Way Partnership for Disinfection Fogging and Ozone Treatment

World Health Disinfection works with community committees and volunteers, local agencies in the area and organizations that want to support communities through CSR to plan recovery for an entire community in one coordinated effort. Our team provides a disinfection fogging service using Chemgene HLD4H applied through ULV equipment for walkways, the spaces under houses, shared facilities and home interiors. For rooms that can be closed, such as childcare centers, elderly residents' bedrooms and homes with severe musty odors, we add our ozone treatment service.

Who Does What

• Community committee and volunteers. Survey affected homes and set priorities, for example homes with older people, bedridden patients and young children. Ask for each household's consent and announce the schedule in advance so every family knows when their lane will be treated.
• Local agencies. Help coordinate the removal of rubbish and mud from the community, arrange electrical safety checks, and support health communication together with local public health services.
• CSR partners. Provide resources for the program and send employee volunteers to help with safe tasks such as carrying belongings, handing out gloves and rubber boots, or preparing information signs.
• World Health Disinfection. Plans the fogging and ozone treatment, carries it out with a trained team, manages safety on site and provides a clear summary of what was done for every partner.

Program Steps

1. Joint survey. We walk the community with the committee to map lanes, affected homes and shared spaces.
2. Clean-up guidance. We help organize a community clean-up day to remove mud and rubbish, and advise families to discard mattresses and mats that were submerged for a long time.
3. Preparation. Each household is asked to take out food, medicines, pets and plants, and to cover or move sensitive electrical items.
4. Disinfection fogging. We fog walkways, under-house areas, toilet blocks, the community hall and the interiors of homes whose owners have agreed, lane by lane according to plan.
5. Ozone treatment. Rooms that can be closed are treated at a controlled dose matched to their size. No people, animals or plants may be inside during treatment.
6. Ventilation. Doors and windows are opened and residents return only after the ozone has broken down.
7. Re-check and summary. We walk the community again with the committee, record the areas completed and plan follow-up for spots that are still very damp.

Safety note: Ozone treatment is carried out only in rooms that can be closed and that contain no people, animals or plants. Rooms must be properly ventilated before re-entry. Our team controls the ozone dose and recommends covering or removing electronics and rubber items beforehand. Open outdoor areas are treated with disinfection fogging rather than ozone.

Where to Start: Priority Areas in a Community

• Childcare centers and community halls. Young children crawl and sit on the floor. These rooms should be fogged and ozone-treated before children return.
• Homes of older residents and bedridden patients. These residents have weaker immunity and are least able to clean on their own.
• Toilet blocks and water points. These are the most important shared touchpoints in the community.
• Walkways and under-house spaces. Everyone passes along them, and they collect mud and rubbish.
• Rubbish collection points. These should be fogged after the rubbish has been removed, ideally combined with a mosquito spraying service around the community.

10 Reasons Communities and Organizations Choose a Partnership Approach

1. The whole community is covered at once through a disinfection service, limiting cross-contamination between homes.
2. It lowers the risk of leptospirosis, diarrheal disease and skin infections after the flood.
3. Ozone treatment of childcare rooms and elderly residents' rooms reduces musty odors and mold spores.
4. Chemgene HLD4H leaves no harsh chemical smell, which matters in homes built close together.
5. Vulnerable residents are cared for first, in the order the community itself decides.
6. CSR partners gain a clear, measurable program that matches the community's real needs.
7. Local agencies can work alongside the community in an organized way.
8. A record of steps and areas covered supports reporting and future planning.
9. Residents learn practical hygiene by taking part in the work itself.
10. A mosquito spraying service can reduce dengue risk while standing water remains.

Before and After the Program

A Word From a Community Leader

"We did not have the people or the means to do the whole community ourselves. Once there was a clear plan of who does what and which lane gets done on which day, residents cooperated well. The team did the childcare center and the elderly residents' homes first, as we asked. On the day the childcare center reopened, many parents told us they felt much more at ease."
— A committee member of a canal-side community in Khlong Toei district (a representative field scenario)

Advice for Residents After the Water Recedes

• Wear rubber boots and gloves whenever you wash away mud or walk in areas that are still wet. Avoid walking barefoot.
• Cover cuts with waterproof plasters and wash hands with soap before every meal.
• Throw away food and drinking water that touched floodwater. Use clean or boiled water for drinking and cooking.
• Turn over containers that collect water around your home to reduce mosquito breeding.
• Put rubbish in tied bags to cut off food for rats.
• Anyone who waded through floodwater and then develops a high fever, headache or muscle pain, especially in the calves, should see a doctor promptly and mention the flood exposure. Guidance is available from the Department of Disease Control.

A Guide for Companies Planning Flood-Recovery CSR

Many companies in and around Khlong Toei, from logistics and port businesses to offices, retailers and manufacturers, want to help neighboring communities after a flood. Good intentions are not always enough, though. CSR activities that are planned without the community can end up duplicating what others are doing, missing the people who need help most, or creating extra work for already exhausted residents. Here are some principles that make a real difference.

Start by listening. Meet the community committee before deciding what to do. They know which lanes were hit hardest, which households are most vulnerable and what other support has already arrived.

Fund what is hard for residents to do themselves. Residents can sweep and carry belongings. They usually cannot provide professional-grade disinfection, ozone treatment, safety equipment or waste removal at scale. Directing resources toward these tasks gives the greatest health benefit.

Keep employee volunteers safe. Volunteers should help with low-risk tasks and always wear boots and gloves. Specialist work such as fogging and ozone treatment should be left to trained technicians.

Respect dignity and privacy. Ask before entering homes or taking photographs. Residents are partners in the program, not a backdrop for publicity.

Measure what matters. Useful measures include the number of homes and shared spaces treated, the number of vulnerable households reached first, and how quickly key facilities such as the childcare center reopened. Our team provides a summary of areas covered that can support your internal reporting.

Think beyond one day. Recovery takes weeks. Consider supporting a follow-up visit to re-check damp areas, and a mosquito control round while water is still standing.

Communicating and Reporting the Program Openly

A successful program needs everyone to share the same picture. Before work begins, the community committee should announce the schedule through the community loudspeaker, the community LINE group and a notice board at the hall, explaining which lane will be treated on which day and what each household needs to prepare. During the work, volunteers can knock on doors to remind families who have not yet moved their belongings. After the work, our team summarizes the areas completed, the spots that need follow-up and advice for ongoing care, so the committee, local agencies and supporting organizations can all refer to the same information.

This kind of open communication builds residents' trust and makes the next program, whether after another flood or for routine community health work, much faster to organize. It also gives CSR partners and local agencies confidence that their support reached the people it was meant for.

A Sample One-Week Program Timeline

Every community is different, but the following outline shows how a coordinated program can fit into roughly one week once the water has gone down. It can be stretched or compressed depending on the size of the community and the resources available.

Day 1: Meet and survey. The community committee, a representative of the local agency, the CSR partner and our team meet at the community hall. Together we walk every lane, mark the most affected homes and shared spaces on a simple map, and agree on priorities.

Day 2: Announce and prepare. The committee announces the plan through the loudspeaker and LINE group. Volunteers distribute gloves, boots and rubbish bags, and visit older residents to help them prepare.

Day 3: Community clean-up day. Residents, volunteers and local agency staff remove mud, waterlogged mattresses and rubbish. The local agency arranges collection so that waste does not sit in the lanes.

Days 4 and 5: Fogging and ozone treatment. Our team starts with the childcare center, the homes of older and bedridden residents and the toilet block, then works through the lanes in the agreed order, fogging walkways, under-house areas and consenting homes, and ozone-treating rooms that can be closed.

Day 6: Mosquito control and re-check. Standing water around the community is reduced and mosquito spraying is carried out if needed. Our team walks the community again with the committee to check odors and visible mold.

Day 7: Summary and next steps. All partners receive a short summary of what was done, which areas need follow-up and what residents should keep doing to stay healthy.

Simple Health Messages Volunteers Can Share

Village health volunteers and committee members are trusted voices in the community. During the program, they can repeat a few short, practical messages at every door: wear boots and gloves when cleaning; wash hands with soap before eating; keep cuts covered; throw away food that touched floodwater; drink clean or boiled water; empty containers that hold water; and see a doctor quickly if a fever, headache or calf pain develops after wading through floodwater. Simple messages, repeated by familiar people, are often more effective than any leaflet.

Volunteers can also keep an eye out for residents who seem unwell, older people living alone who have not been seen for a day or two, and homes where the smell or mold is getting worse rather than better. Passing this information to the committee allows the program to respond quickly, and it is often the most valuable contribution a neighbor can make during recovery.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How can a company start a CSR program with a community?
A: Contact our team with the community area you are interested in. We will help coordinate a joint survey with the community committee and propose a work plan for your consideration.

Q: Can a community contact you directly without a sponsor?
A: Yes. Communities can contact us for advice and planning, starting with the most important shared spaces first.

Q: Do you need to enter every home?
A: We only treat the interiors of homes whose owners have given consent. Walkways and shared spaces are treated according to the plan agreed with the community committee.

Q: Can ozone be used in wooden houses with many gaps and vents?
A: Our team assesses whether a room can be closed sufficiently. Rooms that cannot be sealed are treated mainly with disinfection fogging.

Q: How long do residents need to stay out of their homes?
A: Only during fogging, ozone treatment and ventilation for that particular house. Our team will tell residents when it is safe to return.

Q: Which areas do you serve?
A: Khlong Toei, Phra Khanong, Bang Na, Yan Nawa and other parts of Bangkok and its surrounding provinces, as well as communities in other flood-affected provinces.

Recover Together, Leave No One Behind

Talk to the World Health Disinfection team about planning a disinfection fogging and ozone treatment program for canal-side and dense urban communities with residents, local agencies and CSR partners in Khlong Toei and across Bangkok.

See Our Disinfection Service – Click Here

Book Ozone Treatment – Click Here

Call 065-556-6294 · LINE @whd268 · worldhealthdisinfection@gmail.com

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• Mosquito spraying service
• Residential ozone disinfection
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References: WHO – Floods and health and the Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health.