The 430 evacuees who won't be budged

Housewife Rossukon Samabutra, 32, walks through darkness in the toilets of flooded Don Mueang airport.

YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN: The Flood Relief Operations Command in Don Mueang left its sign and evacuees behind after the airport was flooded

Mrs Rossukon carries a tank of floodwater she took from the inundated ground floor to begin her daily duty of keeping the toilets clean.

For nearly three weeks, Mrs Rossukon has volunteered to clean the toilets at the airport, where she lives among a group of 430 diehard evacuees who refuse to leave, even though electricity and other essential services no longer function.

It's a hard and dirty job, but Mrs Rossukon says it is necessary or the evacuees will not be able to stay there much longer.

"The floodwaters are still above the waist. How can we get back to our homes?" asked Mrs Rossukon, a resident of nearby Sang Phaitoon community, who is also caring for her two children at the shelter.

The government's Flood Relief Operation Command (Froc) was once based at the airport, but relocated to the Energy Ministry's building when the airport flooded.

The evacuation centre, based in the next building, was among the first to receive evacuees after floods started entering northern Bangkok and nearby provinces

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At one point, the center was home to thousands of refugees.

But when the airport flooded, and the government decided to relocate its command centre to the Energy Ministry, it also told evacuees that they, too, would have to leave.

They were told to leave for centres in other provinces including western Kanchanaburi and Ratchaburi.

Several hundred evacuees, especially those whose houses are close to the centre, remained behind. They are now staying in an airport check-in hall, without electricity or running water.

After the first few days, resources quickly dried up.

A constant electricity supply was the first to go, as generators on the ground floor were flooded.

Water supplies were next, which has forced evacuees to bring in water supplies from outside.

The government provided tents to evacuees, but little else, residents say.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's Don Mueang administration office provides them with three meals a day, which arrive by boat.

Sometimes, residents say, the meals have spoiled by the time they reach them.

There are no medical personnel around and if they get sick, they have to take care of one another using first aid before calling a doctor or sending a patient to a hospital.

Several evacuees suspect the state has been trying to send them the message to leave.

Authorities spread word the centre would be closed and nothing more would be provided.

Rumours quickly took hold among residents that they were not wanted.

Authorities broadcast messages to them over a microphone at night, which interrupted residents' sleep.

Yet despite the hardships, this hardy band of flood victims insist they will stay on at the airport, if only because the alternative _ heading back to flooded, damaged homes _ is even less appealing. The evacuees say floodwaters have not yet receded to the point when can return.

They have established five ''villages'' and one ''tambon'' among themselves, to give shape to their community.

Village heads, one chosen for each ''village'', assign responsibilities to their residents. Those include making contact with authorities to ensure that three meals a day are delivered, raising donations from outside, and keeping the place clean and orderly.

Jessada Kongkuntod, a ''kamnan'' at the centre, said evacuees have no choice but to stay for now.

Some make brief visits back to their homes to check on them, but spend the bulk of their time at the centre.

As the airport was flooded, authorities told evacuees very little, other than the fact they were expected to move.

The lack of communication reflected the poor state of preparedness among authorities to handle evacuations for flood victims, he said.

Alternative shelters suggested by the government when it left the airport were not suitable, as they were either too far away, or too cramped.

Residents also wanted some assurance that the flood shelters where they were expected to move could accommodate them, as they had heard that some were too crowded, or turning people away.

''The school shelters it provided nearby also flooded, and are too small,'' he said. Asked if the state should do anything more to help, he said: ''We are not keen to ask them to help any more. They are not ready to take care of people properly.''