The holiday island of Bali – a favourite with Brit tourists – is running out of water due to too many tourists jetting in and more than half of its rivers are now dry.
According to local media, built-up areas in the southern Indonesian island of Bali have been absorbing water supplies from rural regions to cater to the needs of holidaymakers.
The situation is not helped by the reported drought the region has been going through.
According to Indonesia’s Environmental Protection Agency, 260 of the island’s 400 rivers have dried out.
Reports said that Bali’s largest water reserve Lake Buyan has also dropped by 3.5 metres.
According to a charity worker interviewed by local media, a tourist used between 2,000 and 4,000 litres of water a day based on daily water usage at popular resorts on the island.
Additionally, huge amounts of water are used to fill swimming pools and water golf courses without considering industrial water usage.
Meanwhile, local residents are reportedly living through a drought and a diminishing water supply is making it hard for people to carry out daily routines such as cooking and cleaning.
The government has tried to remedy the situation by distributing water with tankers, but it has not been enough according to many residents.
Cashew farmer Ketut told reporters: “Last month, the government brought four water trucks, but this month there have been none at all.”
Stroma Cole, a senior professor of tourism geography at the University of the West of England, said: “You can say that the drought in the north, east and west has nothing to do with tourism because there is very little tourism there and it has always been chronically dry.
“But the water in the lakes can be distributed equally throughout the island, or it can be used excessively for tourism, as is happening now.
“They are damming rivers to divert the water to the south, while they could be directing it north.
“The villages up there are not dry because of the drought. They are dry because of the policy, the decisions that are being made.”
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Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder,  Agency: Central European News
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