Bali Millis Preview and Information: [bali-bali] Re: Bali: Island paradise sucked dry by tourists

Dear all,

I have read these article before , and it doesn't escaped me ,
i just don't know where to begin ?
Bukankah saya yang keras mohon untuk tidak lagi mempromosikan Bali?
Sudah saya singgung juga kemarin dulu , kalau orang yang kuat dan
bijaksana seperti alm. I B Mantra yang saya kagumipun bisa dipindah
ke India , hanya untuk mereka mempermudah jalan mereka.
What can i say? what is there to do ?
Few months back , i have also written about environment disaster
in the middle of the sea in tanjung , regarding a form of new Island
of rubish as big as 1 kilometer across ,i have seen it , and i state
my concern , and only Bapak Adrian responding to it.

So, this article , these fact did not escape me , it just makes me
upset , it makes mad and also makes me scared.
That's the only reason i asked brother Sugi when he sees the new
Governor what are they planning about the environment?

Ini ketiga kalinya dalam milis ini saya akan quote wisdom word
of the Indian Chief again , kali ini dalam Bhs Indonesia.

SETELAH MEREKA MENEBANG POHON YANG TERAKHIR..
SETELAH MEREKA MENANGKAP IKAN YANG TERAKHIR..
SETELAH MEREKA MENGERINGKAN SUNGAI YANG TERAKHIR..
HANYA SETELAH ITU MEREKA SADAR....
KALAU UANG TIDAK DAPAT DIMAKAN.

Let's do something.. all of us ,

--- In bali-bali@yahoogroups.com, "Asana Viebeke Lengkong"
<asanasw@...> wrote:
>
> Hallo Gung, Sugi, Popo dan semua,
>
> Article ini sampai lolos dari diskusi kita di milis ini.....
saking orang sibuk kenalan sama Tuhan atau sudah terlalu kenal
sampai harus di 'omongin' terus aja.
>
> Padahal diskusi berkaitan dengan tulisan ini yang di baca oleh
banyak sekarang orang di luar Bali/Indonesia, penting sekali untuk
kita tanggapi dengan strategi planning yang mantap untuk perbaikan
Bali.
>
> Tanggal 22 ya, kita bahas tuntas..... pelan tapi pasti. Semua ini
perlu agar pengambil keputusan di Bali lebih consisten dan
profesional di dalam mengelola Bali ke depan.
>
> salam, vieb
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: ancak ramone
> To: bali-bali@yahoogroups.com ; baliblogger@yahoogroups.com ;
sustainbali@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Monday, October 06, 2008 4:03 PM
> Subject: [bali-bali] Bali: Island paradise sucked dry by tourists
>
>
>
> Bali: Island paradise sucked dry by tourists
> Sydney Morning Herald Post 4 Oct 08;
>
> "Six years ago you could paddle out at Nusa Dua and see
beautiful tropical fish darting back and forth. Now you see plastic
bags … This is the third bomb coming to Bali, an environmental bomb."
>
> FROM the crowded bar of the Bounty Club, where bare-chested
Australian youngsters mount the stage and drunkenly bellow karaoke,
to the luxury Luna 2 villa where the glitterati sip French champagne
on the Legian foreshore, Bali is booming again.
>
> The fall in tourist numbers that followed two sets of Bali
bombings are a distant memory. Tourist numbers rose to a new high
this year, with a record 33,000 Australians arriving in July alone.
Visitors walking the 10-kilometre beachfront strip from Kuta to
Seminyak any day in the past three months would not have been able
to find a single vacant room.
>
> Across the island, a multitude of new hotels and villas are
being built. Bagus Sudibya, of Bali's Tourism Board, says the island
now hosts 60,000 tourist rooms, compared with 40,000 three years
ago. He predicts that this year there will be more than 2 million
visitors for the first time.
>
> In Bali's bars, beaches and shops, locals welcome the
revitalisation of the tourism trade that provides the island with 80
per cent of its income. But the newly-elected Governor, the softly
spoken former police chief known to Australians for capturing the
Bali bombers, I Made Mangku Pastika, is watching the influx with
alarm.
>
> He sees another time bomb ticking, an environmental catastrophe
set to overwhelm the holiday paradise. Development is denuding
Bali's forests and literally sucking the island dry, Governor
Pastika warns.
>
> "We are very concerned about the environmental problems in Bali
because our forests now are only 22 per cent of the whole area in
Bali - according to our laws there should be at least 30 per cent -
and of this 22 per cent, only 59 per cent is in good condition and
can function as a real forest."
>
> Demand for wood was three-times what legal logging could supply,
eating into the remaining forest, Pastika says. "The next problem
this creates is water. Now from 400 rivers there are 260 dry. We
have 140 left, but they are in the process of drying."
>
> Bali's environmental balance is under threat, he says.
>
> "Water levels are decreasing, people are exploiting water,
taking deep water, there is a massive exploitation of our
underground water by hotels and big companies like Coca Cola. The
process of drying is destroying our environment."
>
> The level of vehicles, waste and sanitation is also critical,
Pastika says, and it is exacerbated by the rampant pace of tourism
development.
>
> "People want to come to Bali to enjoy the paradise. Paradise
means good weather, good environment, good food, good beaches, good
rivers. But, frankly speaking, I am worried if we cannot slow down
this rapid and massive destruction."
>
> For years Bali aficionados have warned that tourism could
overwhelm both the island and its culture, but Pastika believes the
tipping point is at hand, and he is not alone.
>
> In his sprawling villa complex cascading down a luscious green
gorge on Ubud's outskirts - its tranquil beauty has housed Mick
Jagger and Kylie Minogue - sits the renowned local designer Amir
Rabik.
>
> "Everybody sees the danger but no one is doing anything about
it," Rabik says.
>
> Bali needs clean water, better infrastructure, waste management
and an enforceable building code, he says, and "the great danger is
developers, now many international developers are here".
>
> Bali's philosophical environment also needs protection, he says.
>
> "It's not Hindu, Buddhist or animist, but combined beliefs
respecting God, harmony and nature. If respect for God, nature and
harmony disappear, then Bali is gone, it's worse than a bomb."
>
> Walhi is Indonesia's foremost environmental watchdog, and Agung
Wardana heads its Bali chapter. He is dismayed at the climbing
number of resorts, with even "ecological" villas eating into what is
left of the island's forests. Hotels are spreading to less developed
areas, siphoning off water, Wardana says.
>
> "Local people now have to suffer more because the huge water
consumption for each hotel room is 30 times the water consumption of
one individual. The Government should prioritise their community
first."
>
> In central Bali's Karangasem, water is now so scarce villagers
have to travel four kilometres along dusty roads to buy containers
of the vital liquid.
>
> Across the island entrepreneurs are placing profit ahead of the
environment, typified by the beach once known as Dreamland, a near-
mythical surf break nestled at the base of the Bukit Peninsula.
>
> Dreamland was just a few kilometres from Kuta's bustle, but
protected by relative inaccessibility. After trekking across fields
and down a cliff, you could watch the rolling waves, snacking on
fried rice and fish from rickety warungs, or beachside shacks. A few
years ago the son of the former president Soeharto, Tommy, used
gangsters to help push locals aside and buy up the area. After he
was jailed for ordering the murder of a Supreme Court judge, the
land was sold off to other developers, who have carved a road down
through the cliffs. They are building a huge hotel on the
beachfront, have bulldozed the warungs and built a massive concrete
walkway lined by box-like concrete shops, renaming the area the "new
Kuta".
>
> Watching the waves as construction continues, several young
locals who hire out surfboards try to attract custom, shaking their
heads at the vista behind them. "The wave is the same," says Miki,
who has welcomed surfers here for eight years. "The beach might be
different, but the wave stay the same, so no problem, just come."
>
> His optimism is skin deep. "The rich get richer, the poor get
poorer," Miki continues.
>
> "My income dropped almost 30-40 per cent compared to before the
building started. We were never told that this is what they were
going to do."
>
> He gestures to the construction. "I don't think it's allowed,
but I guess they use some trick to get the permit. The Government
should have never issued the permit. It doesn't look pretty. It's
damaging the beach."
>
> All around the Bukit Peninsula developers are carving into hills
and cliffs, eager to market luxury villas with ocean views to
international, often Australian, investors. Exclusive five-star
resorts, such as Bulgari Hotel, charging $1500 a night for a cliff-
top villa, are spreading.
>
> On this deeply spiritual island the one area sacrosanct from
development was land surrounding significant Hindu temples, usually
on hilltops. But on the Bukit Peninsula the hunger for prime real
estate has seen these regulations violated.
>
> Locals are protesting over the construction of villas around the
Uluwatu Temple. Pastika concedes the developments are illegal,
demonstrating the need for new, enforceable land use laws.
>
> "The bylaw declares it a no development zone; however, the
reality in the field is quite different. There have been many
buildings developed inside those perimeters. We should take this
reality into consideration since locals also need jobs."
>
> The old-time Australian surfer Mike O'Leary found business
success as a jewellery designer, setting up a Bali factory employing
150 local staff. Relocated to Bali, he is advising a top-end
architectural and construction firm. "I know of about 5000 villas
going into the Bukit over the next two years," O'Leary says, "Five
hundred at Dreamland alone.
>
> "It's all self-regulated; no one is going to tell you where to
put your sewerage. You want to build, you just pay your money and
you can build anything you want."
>
> O'Leary, still an avid surfer, is dismayed by the state of the
once-pristine ocean. Hotel sewage often flows out into the tourist
beaches of Kuta and Legian.
>
> "Six years ago you could paddle out at Nusa Dua and see
beautiful tropical fish darting back and forth. Now you see plastic
bags … This is the third bomb coming to Bali, an environmental bomb."
>
> O'Leary decided to play his part in rescuing paradise,
establishing the ROLE foundation, an ecologically oriented charity
aimed at maritime conservation and providing business skills to help
locals establish environmentally friendly businesses.
>
> He has built an abalone farm, using the shells for jewellery to
halt them being robbed from the sea bed. A protected marine area is
being set up off Nusa Dua, and evening classes teaching business and
computer skills are packed with struggling local women.
>
> Pastika proposes radical solutions. "First is to regulate the
exploitation of our underground water," he says. "Especially from
big investors who take a lot of water … Second is to take
responsibility to rebuild the forests, and give people who are
living around the forests good livelihoods, so they can live
properly."
>
> Pastika plans a moratorium on new developments in already-
crowded areas. Bali's culture must also be protected, he adds.
>
> "The philosophy of our island is 'Tri Hita Karana', the balance
and harmony between man, the environment, and between man and our
God. These three things cause happiness.
>
> "If we damage the environment everything is damaged, because
this environment came from God. It belongs to the people."
>
>
>
>
>
> http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2008/10/bali-island-
paradise-sucked-dry-by.html
>