Emergency preparedness in Thailand: official guidance

Short answer. In Thailand, disaster preparedness is led by the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) of the Ministry of Interior, the central state agency under the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act B.E. 2550 (2007) ¹. DDPM ran its first Cell Broadcast phone alert tests in May 2025 ². The DDPM hotline is 1784 and the general emergency number is 191 ³. The survival bag list is still to be verified.

Who is responsible for civil preparedness in Thailand?

The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM, กรมป้องกันและบรรเทาสาธารณภัย), under the Ministry of Interior, is the central state agency for disaster prevention and mitigation (Act B.E. 2550, Section 11) ¹. Two other bodies matter for preparedness:

• The National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC), part of DDPM, issues tsunami and disaster warnings and runs the warning tower network ⁴.
• The Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) works with the Ministry of Public Health on medical response to nuclear and radiological emergencies ⁵.

What is on each page?

• Emergency supplies: a 72-hour survival bag (ถุงยังชีพ) with at least 3 litres of water per person per day, as relayed by the Government Public Relations Department ⁶. The original page could not be read, so this page is still being checked.
• Kit: the survival bag checklist, item by item (also still being checked).
• Public shelters: no national network of public blast or fallout shelters; local disaster directors must provide temporary shelter during a disaster ¹.
• Alerts: Cell Broadcast messages in Thai and English, tested on 2, 7 and 13 May 2025 ², and 354 tsunami warning towers plus 674 small towers ⁴.
• Iodine: no household distribution of potassium iodide; the state keeps a stockpile ⁵.
• Build a shelter: Thai law has no rules on private household shelters ¹.
• Emergency contacts: 191, 199, 1669, 1155 and 1784 ³.

Thailand publishes no technical standard for blast, fallout or household shelters, so there is no shelter standards page for this country.

Is there a national preparedness booklet?

No national booklet is sent to households. DDPM runs recurring survival-bag campaigns, relayed by the Government Public Relations Department, which published a 72-hour checklist ⁶. That page now returns an error and its year could not be confirmed, so the checklist on this site is marked as still to be verified.

Where do I start?

Save the emergency numbers (emergency contacts), learn how phone alerts reach you (alerts), then prepare a bag for three days (kit). For a household plan, see /guides/family-plan. For specific hazards, see /guides/tsunami, /guides/flood-preparedness and /guides/earthquake-preparedness.

Frequently asked questions

Who handles disasters in Thailand?

The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) of the Ministry of Interior is the central state agency under the 2007 Act ¹.

What is the disaster hotline in Thailand?

1784 is the DDPM hotline. For police and general emergencies, call 191; for medical emergencies, 1669 ³.

Does Thailand send emergency alerts to phones?

Yes. DDPM tested Cell Broadcast alerts in May 2025, with messages in Thai and English ².

Does Thailand have public bomb shelters?

There is no national public shelter network; disaster directors provide temporary shelter during a disaster ¹. Bunkers along the Cambodian border are known only through a press report; see public shelters.

Sources

1. Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Ministry of Interior (English translation) — Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act B.E. 2550 [2007] — https://aipalync.org/document/view/2038 (accessed 2026-10-20)
2. Government Public Relations Department (PRD) — Thailand to Test New Emergency Alert System — https://thailand.prd.go.th/en/content/category/detail/id/52/iid/384120 (accessed 2026-10-20)
3. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand — Situation update on the recent earthquake in Myanmar for foreign nationals residing in Thailand (29 March 2025) — https://www.mfa.go.th/en/content/eq2 (accessed 2026-10-20)
4. National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC), via OceanExpert (IOC-UNESCO) — NDWC presentation to the UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Preparedness Capacity Assessment Team and ESCAP (4 September 2024) — https://oceanexpert.org/downloadFile/57257 (accessed 2026-10-20)
5. Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) — ความพร้อมประเทศไทยด้านความปลอดภัยนิวเคลียร์: ปส. บูรณาการร่วมกับกระทรวงสาธารณสุข ยกระดับมาตรการรองรับเทคโนโลยี SMR และสถานการณ์ฉุกเฉินทางรังสี — https://www.oap.go.th/2026/10/14/measures-supporting-smr-technology-radiological-emergencies/ (accessed 2026-10-20)
6. Government Public Relations Department (กรมประชาสัมพันธ์) — เช็กลิสต์ถุงยังชีพ เพื่อการเอาตัวรอดใน 72 ชั่วโมงแรก — https://www.prd.go.th/th/content/category/detail/id/35/iid/533126 (accessed 2026-10-20; page returned 404 on that date, content known only through a search index)