Is Bali being snowed under by megaprojects?

By I Wayan Juniartha

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): A heated debate has sprung up concerning plans for a huge five-star hotel in Sendang Pasir area, Buleleng regency, and its wider impact on the environment and local community.

Enthusiastically welcoming the plan for hotel, which will have a 2,000-room capacity, is the chairman of Bali's Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association, I Gde Wiratha. He believes the current 31,372 rooms in 1,022 hotels in the province are still inadequate to anticipate the golden age of Bali's tourism industry.

"There will be a boom in Bali tourism, not only because we are cheaper but also because our tourist services and facilities have many times been voted the best in the world," is his frequent comment.

Not everyone agrees with him. At the forefront are environmental activists and intellectuals who are now equipped with accurate data on the effects of such huge construction. Moreover, there is also the growing sentiment that Bali and its people have degenerated into objects of tourism exploitation.

"Ask the Balinese community first what they desire and don't build projects simply because they (the investors) have the investment," said sociologist Putu Suasta.

He was referring to a number of megaprojects, which finally caused unrest among people and environmental damage, such as Bali Pecatu Graha at Pecatu, Nirwana Bali Resort at Tanah Lot and the tourist area of Serangan Island.

The new hotel, set to cost trillions of rupiah and includes a luxurious apartment building, marina, park, marine park and a golf course, will be built on almost 247 hectares on the northern coast of Bali.

According to environmental activists from various non- governmental organizations like the Wisnu Foundation, Manikaya Kauci, World Wild Fund for Nature, PPLH and Bina Ekowisata, the project will harm the environment, especially the West Bali National Park and the Menjangan island coastal area, which is known for the beauty of its coral reefs.

"A golf course needs huge quantities of fertilizers containing nitrogen and phosphate. These elements, the most appetizing food for the Acanthaster Plancii larvae, natural predators of coral reefs, will be washed into the sea. When there is an outbreak of Acanthaster Plancii, Bali's most beautiful coral reefs will be finished," said Ketut Sarjana Putra, deputy director of WWF Wallacea Bioregion.

Sarjana Putra has good reason to be worried; a 1996 outbreak of about 400,000 Acanthaster Plancii, which resembles a sea star, spared only 8 percent of the hard coral population.

Another concern is that Buleleng's natural resources will not be enough to support the hotel's operations.

Yuyun Ilham, executive director of the Wisnu Foundation, said that the hotel would require 17 liters of water per second, the same quantity needed by 16,600 rural inhabitants, or for the irrigation of 132-hectare rice fields.

A study by the Udayana University's Research Institute in 1997 showed that the difference between the need for and the potential of water in Buleleng was -109.2 million cubic meters. It will reach -118.6 million cubic meters in 2002.

"Buleleng already lacked water two years ago. On a macro scale, the same applies to Bali," Yuyun said.

Concerns have apparently been disregarded by the project's investor, PT Ninusa Odijaya, which has applied for a new license after Bali Governor Dewa Made Beratha rejected the construction due to the expiration of the old permit.

Buleleng regent Wiratha Sindhu has taken an ambiguous stance on the matter. On one hand, he gave the impression of protecting the interests of some 400 farm laborer families, who rejected the hotel's construction on the land where they work. But regent has stated his approval of the construction as long as "it follows procedures".

"This happens because of the wrong system in developing Bali's tourism, with the emphasis more on mass tourism, going after the tourists and dollars. Another factor is unequal distribution of profits raised from tourism, making each regency compete to issue permits for hotel development to boost their regional revenues," said Prof. Dr. L.K. Suryani, one of Bali's most vocal and critical intellectuals.

Buleleng's 1998/1999 regional revenues amounted to Rp 5.6 billion only, of which Rp 1.5 billion was from taxes raised from hotels and restaurants.

Other regencies earned more revenue. Badung regency, with its 463 hotels (20,551 rooms), raised Rp 129.7 billion, of which Rp 110 billion was from hotel and restaurant revenues. Denpasar mayoralty gained Rp 46 billion, Rp 33 billion of which came from hotel and restaurant taxes. It is not surprising that Buleleng bureaucrats and some members of the community are gung-ho about the project.

Although Badung and Denpasar have allocated part of their revenues from hotel and restaurant taxes -- 15 percent in 1997/1998 and 30 percent in 1998/1999 -- to the Bali regional government to be divided equally among the other seven regencies, the effort has clearly not succeeded in stopping other regencies from getting rich by allowing the construction of tourist facilities.

"It will be better if all tourism-related profits are submitted to the Bali's provincial administration, which will then equally distribute them to all regencies," said Suryani.

Currently, tourists used Badung and Denpasar for accommodation and visit tourist attractions located in other regencies, making it reasonable for them to share the profits.

Without profit-sharing efforts, more megaprojects will show up until one day Bali is packed with hotels and restaurants.

Suryani said there should be a way to select and limit tourists coming to the island, which reached two million people in 1998.

"If they want to play golf, tourists should not come to Bali. It's small and if it is being burden with the construction of megaprojects all the time and the arrival of millions of tourists, Bali will be decimated either ecologically, sociologically or culturally," Suryani said.

According to a visitor survey by Austindo Marketing Services in 1999, 35 percent of 750 foreign tourists chose Bali for its rich culture.

"Balinese culture is the product of a communal-agrarian community that is highly dependent on nature conservation and agriculture," said a cultural scholar, Nyoman Gede Sugiharta.

In reality, Bali's agricultural land is decreased at around 1,000-hectare per year and its ecology is ruined. The megaprojects consume land and pollute nature, thus cutting at the very resources of Balinese culture.

"It's a sort of stupid suicide," he said.

Yet, it is clearly difficult for the activists, intellectuals and critics to persuade the authorities, members of the community and especially tourism operators that Bali no longer needs hotels or other such projects.

"If a problem does not directly touch or affect their life, the Balinese do not care about it. They are not aware that the problem will eventually affect their future," said Putu Suasta.