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Bali Confronts Its ‘Hellish’ Problems
Made Arya Kencana & Camelia Pasandaran | April 07, 2011

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DrDez
9:43pm Apr 8, 2011

Whilst I agree with the sentiment I cannot help thinking that Made Pastika has quite a bit of responsibility here as Governor -

Yes its Pan Indonesian and I always have a chuckle when I see people washing their clothes in the river 2 feet from someone taking a dump - rubbish or otherwise BUT a lot of this is down to personal responsibility - and that as always is where it falls down whether you are Made the warung atendant or Made the governor Its always just words


Kesiangan
9:30pm Apr 8, 2011

Mangku is the first Indonesian governor to acknowledge the problem. Maybe Jakarta will follow suit and stop snoring the problem away.

Kesiangan
9:25pm Apr 8, 2011

It's not only Bali. This problem is pan-Indonesian.

Jeanne Hachette
6:09pm Apr 8, 2011

Last pictures showed scavengers manually picking up trash on Kuta beach. When is this country going to go out of the stone age to fix its problems? Use scrappers with tractors for God sake!! Otherwise the local government is just pissing in the wind using manual labor. Also, people having their restaurant on Jimbaran should be responsible for cleaning the section of beach in front of their business.

step24
5:08pm Apr 8, 2011

I give my full respect to Pastika. I went to Bali 2 years ago, and I didn't even bother to visit Kuta..it wasn't a popular and enjoyable spot for me. It's great that he acknowledge this matter and want to improve Bali..


Denpasar. While most government officials seem allergic to criticism, Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika said on Wednesday that he had no problem with Time labeling the island a hellish holiday destination.

“We cannot deny it. It is a fact,” Pastika said “If Bali is allowed to continue [like this], it will become hell for tourists.”

In an April 1 article titled “Holidays in Hell: Bali’s Ongoing Woes,” Andrew Marshall examined the various problems faced by the resort island, from garbage to beach pollution and traffic congestion.

The magazine article covered similar issues to those uncovered in a Bali Tourism Office survey that found one of the first complaints tourists made after arriving in Bali was that litter was out of control, Pastika said.

“It is true that we are dirty, much more than other countries,” he said.

Pastika also said he had received numerous complaints about the island’s increasingly congested traffic, including from participants at the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank in May 2009.

He asked Balinese people not to become offended by the article or send letters of protest or rebuttal to the magazine.

“The facts are there and Time only wrote what it saw,” Pastika said. “It is a magazine with a high level of credibility. We should look at this as a chance for introspection.”

He said he hoped the report would open Balinese people’s eyes to the problems that urgently needed to be addressed.

“It should not be like it is now, where the construction of a new toll road is held up or the moratorium on the building of new hotels is opposed,” he said.

Ida Bagus Subhiksu, head of the Bali Tourism Office, said he was not worried of the impact of the report.

“It could even be positive. Tourists who have visited Bali might want to check the veracity of the report,” he said, adding he was gathering tourism industry professionals to discuss the appropriate response to the report.

“We will try as best as we can to ensure Bali regains its image as a heavenly island,” he said.

On Wednesday, Kuta’s famous beach saw a massive clean-up operation. “Almost every day, Kuta receives the equivalent of 20 to 100 trucks of garbage,” said Anak Agung Ngurah Tresna, who heads the Kuta Beach Task Force.

Tresna said the beach will now be cleaned five times daily, instead of the usual two to three .