A Story from the Field: The Riverside Pavilion at the Heart of the Community

Uncle Somporn is in his late sixties and serves on the lay committee of a temple in the Ko Kret community of Pak Kret, Nonthaburi. He was born and raised on the island. For as long as he can remember, the temple's riverside pavilion has been where villagers come to give alms in the morning, where people sit waiting for the ferry, where children do their homework after school, and where weekend visitors pause to rest and watch the river.

Ko Kret sits in the middle of the Chao Phraya River, outside the flood wall. During the October 2026 floods, strong runoff from the north met high tides from the sea, and water spread across the temple grounds, the riverside pavilion, the dining hall and the ground-floor storerooms for several days. Monks and villagers worked together to lift small Buddha images, scriptures and ceremonial items to higher ground in time. But the mats, sitting cushions, mattresses, pillows, low altar tables and some of the loudspeakers were still in the storeroom.

When the water receded, the wooden pavilion was left with a band of river mud on its posts and floor. The steps down to the landing were slick with algae and slime. The dining hall smelled heavily of damp, with mold spots on its walls, and the mat storeroom had such a sour smell that the younger monks kept its door shut. Lay visitors who came to make merit began coughing and sneezing, and some were elderly people with existing health conditions. Uncle Somporn discussed it with the abbot. Before the end-of-year merit-making ceremonies and before visitors returned, how could the temple be made clean and safe while still honouring its place as a sacred site?

Why a Riverside Island Temple Needs Careful Planning

• Outside the flood wall. The island takes water directly whenever the river is high. Moisture lingers in the soil and the buildings much longer than in protected areas.
• The riverside pavilion is open to the elements. It takes both floodwater and river spray. River mud is rich in organic sediment, which feeds mold and bacteria on timber.
• The mat and cushion storeroom. Fabric and mats that were soaked and then stacked in a closed room are the heaviest source of musty smells and mold in the temple.
• Most regular visitors are older people. The people who come to make merit most often are elderly and more sensitive to mold spores and germs.
• Island logistics. Getting on and off the island depends on the ferry, so equipment and working hours have to be planned carefully.
• Respect for the site. A temple holds sacred spaces and objects. Every step must be coordinated with the temple.

Risks for Monks, Lay Visitors and Guests

River mud and floodwater left standing on temple grounds can carry bacteria such as E. coli, raising the risk of diarrhoeal illness and skin infections. Riverside areas where rats have fled the water also carry a risk of leptospirosis for anyone wading through mud or with cuts on their feet. Mold spores from the dining hall, the mat storeroom and the cushions can trigger coughing, sneezing, allergies and asthma, both in resident monks and in lay visitors who sit on mats for long periods listening to sermons. This is general information and not medical advice.

Beyond health, a pavilion made slippery by algae and mud is a fall hazard, especially for older people stepping down to give alms to monks who arrive by boat in the morning. And a musty dining hall makes people uneasy about bringing food to offer.

There is also the question of food safety. The dining hall is where lay visitors bring cooked dishes to offer and where monks take their meal. Tables, serving trays, water containers and the floor around the food preparation area may all have been touched by floodwater. Wiping these down with clean water and then disinfecting them before the first communal meal is a simple step that protects everyone. Drinking water containers that were submerged should be scrubbed and sanitised, or replaced, before they are refilled.

Finally, there is the emotional side. For many older villagers, the temple is a source of comfort after a frightening few weeks. Seeing it clean, dry and welcoming again tells the community that life is returning to normal, and that matters just as much as the practical benefits.

Common Post-Flood Approaches in Temples and Their Limits

• Hosing down and leaving it to dry. This removes the mud, but timber that sat in water for days still harbours mold, and the musty smell in closed rooms does not leave with the mud.
• Sunning the mats and cushions, then putting them back. Sunlight helps, but if the storeroom still holds spores and odour, the items will smell again within days.
• Burning incense to cover the smell. Fragrance helps only briefly, and smoke in rooms with poor airflow is not suitable for older people with breathing problems.
• Using strong bleach on old timber. It can stain and damage carved woodwork and the pavilion's timber floor.

The Solution: Zones Based on How Each Space Is Used, by WHD

World Health Disinfection (WHD) provides a disinfection service and an ozone treatment service for temples and religious sites, dividing the work by how each space is used and according to the temple's own wishes.

Open areas: riverside pavilion, courtyard, walkways

Once the temple and villagers have washed off the mud, the team applies CHEMGENE HLD4H disinfectant with an ultra-low-volume (ULV) fogger to timber floors, posts, handrails, benches and walkways. The fine mist reaches into gaps in the wood and around posts using a controlled amount of disinfectant. Open areas like these are not suitable for ozone treatment, because the gas would simply disperse.

Closed rooms: dining hall, mat and cushion storeroom, monks' quarters

Rooms that can be closed are disinfected first, then treated with a Master Ozone Generator. Ozone works its way into mats, cushions, mattresses, curtains and walls, helping to reduce mold spores and break down the musty, sour smells trapped there.

Respect for sacred objects

• Buddha images, scriptures, offerings and sacred objects are moved or handled entirely by the temple. The team does not touch sacred items.
• Which areas are treated, and which are not, is decided by the abbot and the temple committee. The team proposes options and follows the temple's decisions.
• The team dresses modestly, removes footwear where the temple asks, and schedules work around the monks' routines.

Ozone safety

• During ozone treatment, monks, novices, lay visitors and any temple dogs and cats must stay out of the room being treated. Potted plants must be moved out.
• After treatment, doors and windows must be opened for the ventilation time the team specifies before the room is used.
• Sound systems, microphones and electronics should be removed or covered. The team controls the ozone dose to suit the room.

Recommended Order of Work for an Island Temple

1. Meet with the temple. Agree which areas to treat and when, avoiding the monks' routines, and let the temple take care of sacred items first.
2. Plan transport. Arrange ferry times and a safe landing point for unloading equipment.
3. Wash off mud and sort items. Villagers help wash the pavilion and grounds. Badly damaged mats, cushions and mattresses are set aside, while usable ones are washed or sunned.
4. Disinfect open areas: the riverside pavilion, landing steps, courtyard and walkways.
5. Disinfect closed rooms: the dining hall, storerooms, toilets and any monks' quarters the temple chooses.
6. Ozone-treat closed rooms one at a time, according to their size.
7. Ventilate by opening doors and windows until the ozone smell has gone.
8. Re-check before the ceremony, looking again for odour and mold, and advising on how to keep mats and cushions dry in the long term.

Caring for Mats, Cushions and Textiles After the Water Recedes

Fabric and mats are the single biggest source of musty smells in a temple after a flood. Handling them correctly from the start helps the results of disinfection and ozone treatment last.

• Sort straight away. Never leave wet mats and cushions stacked together. Mold spreads from one to the next within days.
• Reed and plastic mats: wash off the mud and dry both sides fully in the sun. Reed mats with widespread black mold should be replaced.
• Foam cushions and mattresses: if the foam stayed soaked for several days, the smell usually sets in, so consider replacing them. Wash removable covers separately.
• Curtains and altar table cloths: wash in warm water and dry in the sun. For ceremonial textiles or cloth with religious significance, the temple decides how they should be cared for.
• Storeroom shelving: raise it off the floor and leave a gap from the wall so air can circulate and the shelving does not draw moisture from the ground.
• Offerings received during the flood, such as rice and dry food, should be checked for water damage and stored away from rooms still awaiting treatment.

The Community Helps the Temple, the Temple Helps the Community

On Ko Kret, the temple is the heart of community life: a place to make merit, a place to meet and a place of refuge in hard times. When the temple is clean again, villagers have their gathering place back, older people can give alms with peace of mind, and the small shops around the temple can welcome visitors once more.

Uncle Somporn invited villagers to help wash the mud away and sun the mats on the same day the team came. The work finished quickly, and everyone felt they had played a part in restoring their temple. Several households near the temple also used the chance to ask how to look after their own homes.

For temple committees elsewhere in Pak Kret and along the Chao Phraya, the same pattern works well. A short meeting with the abbot to agree the scope, a call to villagers for a clean-up morning, and a professional team booked for the afternoon can bring a temple back to readiness in a single day, with the closed rooms ventilated and ready for use by the following morning.

Practical Notes for Temple Committees on the Island

Island temples face a few practical questions that mainland temples rarely do. These notes come from the kind of planning conversations committees usually have before work begins.

Timing with the river

Water levels on the Chao Phraya rise and fall with the tide. If high tides are still expected, it may make sense to clean and disinfect the riverside pavilion after the highest tides of the week have passed, so the work is not undone by fresh water washing over the floor. Closed rooms set back from the river can usually be treated earlier.

Weekend visitors

Ko Kret draws many visitors at weekends. Scheduling the work on a weekday keeps the pavilion and walkways clear and avoids asking visitors to wait outside rooms being ventilated. A simple sign at the landing explaining that the temple is being cleaned after the flood is usually all that is needed.

Record-keeping

Many temples report flood damage to the local administration or receive donations for repairs. Photographing each area before and after the work, and noting which items were replaced, helps the committee account clearly to donors and the community.

How Clean-Up Day Unfolded

It helps to picture how a day like this actually runs, because temple committees often worry that it will disrupt the temple for a week. In Uncle Somporn's case, it took one long day.

Early in the morning, after the monks returned from their alms round and had finished their meal, about twenty villagers arrived with buckets, brooms and stiff brushes. They washed the river mud off the pavilion floor and posts, scrubbed the algae from the landing steps and carried every mat and cushion out of the storeroom into the sunshine. Damaged items were set to one side for the committee to decide on. The younger monks had already moved the small Buddha images and ceremonial objects from the storeroom shelves to a dry room upstairs the day before, according to the abbot's instructions.

The team crossed on a late-morning ferry with the fogger, the ozone generator and covers for the sound equipment. They began with the open areas: the pavilion, the landing, the courtyard and the walkways. Then they moved to the closed rooms the temple had agreed on: the dining hall, the storeroom and the toilets. Each room was disinfected, sealed and ozone-treated in turn, while the monks rested in another building and villagers continued sunning the mats outside.

By late afternoon, every treated room had its doors and windows open for ventilation. The team walked through with Uncle Somporn to check each space, pointed out two corners of the dining hall where the plaster was still damp, and suggested keeping a fan running there for the next few days. That evening, the dry mats went back into a storeroom that no longer smelled sour.

Keeping the Temple Dry Through the Rest of the Season

The rainy season does not end the moment the flood recedes, and island temples stay humid for weeks. A few simple habits help keep mold from returning.

• Open the dining hall and storeroom windows every dry morning, even for an hour, to let damp air out.
• Keep mats rolled loosely, not folded tightly, and store them on raised racks rather than on the floor.
• Sweep the pavilion and landing steps regularly so river silt and algae do not build up again.
• Assign one committee member to check the storeroom weekly for any return of the sour smell or new spots of mold.
• Empty water from flower vases, jars and drainage channels around the grounds to keep mosquitoes down.

If the smell returns in a particular room, it usually means that something inside is still damp. Finding and drying that item, and then treating the room again if needed, is far easier than waiting until the whole storeroom is affected.

10 Reasons Riverside Temples Choose WHD

1. Respect for the site: the temple handles sacred items, and the team follows the temple's wishes.
2. The right method for each zone: the disinfection service for open areas, the ozone treatment service for closed rooms.
3. A quality disinfectant: CHEMGENE HLD4H, used for high-level disinfection.
4. Gentle on old timber: ULV mist uses little liquid and does not re-soak the pavilion.
5. Tackles musty mats and cushions: ozone reaches into fabric and woven mats.
6. Mindful of older visitors, reducing spores and germs where people sit for long periods.
7. Plans island logistics, coordinating ferry times and landing points.
8. Works around monastic routines, avoiding chanting times and the morning alms round.
9. Clear safety guidance, following best practice for residential ozone disinfection in monks' quarters.
10. Easy to extend: add the mosquito spraying service around the grounds and the dust mite removal service for mattresses and pillows.

Before and After: A Temple in the Ko Kret Community

In the Customer's Words

"What put my mind at ease was that the team asked first about everything: where the temple wanted them to work. The temple handled all the important objects itself, and they didn't touch any of it. The dining hall doesn't smell any more, and our older visitors can sit and listen to sermons again without coughing."

— Uncle Somporn, temple committee member, Ko Kret, Pak Kret (illustrative scenario)

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can the ordination hall be ozone-treated?
A: That is for the abbot and the temple committee to decide. If the temple wishes, it must take care of sacred items itself beforehand. The team will suggest a suitable approach and follow the temple's guidance.

Q: The riverside pavilion is open. What can be done there?
A: Open areas are disinfected on their surfaces: timber floors, posts, handrails and benches. Ozone is not used, because the gas would disperse.

Q: Should soaked mats and cushions be thrown away or kept?
A: Items with deep mold, foam that stayed soaked, or a very strong smell should be replaced. Others can be washed, dried thoroughly in the sun and stored in a room that has been disinfected and ozone-treated.

Q: How long do monks need to leave their quarters?
A: Only during ozone treatment and ventilation. The team schedules around monastic routines and gives the temple clear timings.

Q: How does the team get to the island?
A: By ferry with the equipment. The temple can advise on the most convenient pier and landing point, and the team plans ahead.

Q: How far ahead of a ceremony should this be done?
A: Allow at least several days before the event for ventilation, drying mats and a re-check.

Q: Can villagers help on the day?
A: Yes, and it makes a big difference. Villagers can wash off mud, carry mats out into the sun and sort damaged items, while the team handles disinfection and ozone treatment. Everyone simply needs to stay out of rooms while they are being treated and ventilated, and follow the team's instructions on timing.

Help Your Community Temple Welcome Visitors Again

Temples and religious sites on Ko Kret, in Pak Kret, Mueang Nonthaburi and nearby Chao Phraya communities are welcome to contact us for advice.

See Disinfection Service, Click Here

Book Ozone Treatment, Click Here

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

Related Pages and Sources

• Residential ozone disinfection
• Mosquito spraying service
• Dust mite removal service
• All articles
• External sources: WHO: Floods and health and Department of Health, Thailand

#PostFloodDisinfection #TempleDisinfection #DisinfectionService #OzoneTreatment #MustySmellRemoval #MoldRemoval #Disinfectant

Keywords: temple restoration after flood, riverside pavilion disinfection, temple disinfection, ozone treatment dining hall, musty mats and cushions, post-flood disinfection, Ko Kret, Pak Kret, Nonthaburi 2026