Administration Reform during the reign of king RamaV began with central administration, then moved to provincial administration reform under the provincial system by establishing the first three circle administration areas (Phitsanulok, Prachin Buri and Nakhon Ratchasima) in 1894. It took 13 years before this system was expanded throughout the country in 1907. While carrying out the provincial administration reform, King Rama V initiated a plan, derived from Western systems, to let local people participate in administration. This plan was experimented with through the establishment of the Bangkok sanitary district administration and the provincial sanitary district administration.

1. Bangkok Sanitary District Administration.

King Rama V initiated the local administration of sanitary districts in Bangkok as a result of western influence on him gained during his visit to Europe. Also, it was partly because Chao Phya Apairaja (Rolin Jacquemyns), the General Adviser at that time, told the King that Westerners often made the criticism that Bangkok was untidy and lacked dignified streets unlike other capital cities in general. He therefore set up Bangkok's Sanitary Districts and in 116 R.E. (Rattanasokin Era) enacted the Royal Decree on Bangkok Sanitary Districts. Operations were under the responsibility of the Sanitary District Department. According to the royal decree, the sanitary district administration was to set up occasional meetings.

The duties of Bangkok Sanitary District Office were as follows:

1. Garbage and Waste Disposal.
2. Public Restroom Provision.
3. Construction and Building control.
4. Waste and Disturbance Removal.


2. Provincial Sanitary District Administration.

The establishment of sanitary districts in Ta-Chalorm subdistrict, Samut Sakhon was a huge success, bringing a lot of improvement to that area and gaining tremendous public support. The King therefore decided to expand sanitary district administration to other regions. Realising the impracticality of applying the same set of sanitary district regulations to different provinces, he then enacted the Provincial Sanitary District Act (127 R.E.) which was enforced throughout the country. As soon as any area was ready, he would announce the establishment of sanitary districts and enforce a royal decree on that area. Later, the Ministry of Interior took care of primary public sanitation and education and had the idea of creating a subdistrict affairs division. However, this experimental operation carried out by Circle commissioners proved useful only for public education aspects. The Provincial Sanitary District Royal Decree was amended and sanitary districts were divided into 2 types: Sanitary provinces and sanitary subdistricts, each of which had the following duties:

1. Community Cleanup
2. Health Protection
3. Public Passageway Maintenance
4. Primary Public Education

The two Royal Decrees were used until the retirement of Somdetch Krom Phya Damrongrachanupap from the position of Minister of Interior.

In the reign of King Mongkut (Rama VI), the King did not support decentralization and the sanitary district administration began to face many problems which obstructed and wore down its operations. It was during the revolution in 1932 that the People's Party, in order to establish a democratic government in Thailand, legislated the 1933 Municipality Royal Decree to promote the municipal system in local administration.