T

he development thriller of Lake Buyan, one of the few water catchment areas in Bali, is not yet finished as PT Nusa Bali Abadi, an Indonesian developer, has started to build around the sacred lake.

Without having the essential recommendation from Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika, the development steps into another chapter. The news about Pastika's rejection of PT Anantara's proposal to develop Lake Buyan should have triggered sighs of relief. After waves of protests and letters of complaint, he announced last week that he had turned down the offer from PT Anantara to develop Lake Buyan into an ecotourism resort.

But Ninik Hanoppo, PT Nusa Bali Abadi's director, insisted the company had gone through all the necessary legal procedures. She explained the company had got approval from the village chiefs and the Forestry Ministry in Jakarta to build 25 villas on the 20-hectare plot of land in the Sukasada district near Lake Buyan.

It was reported that the developer obtained the concession from the Buleleng regent and the Forestry Ministry in 2007. However, former Bali governor Dewa Made Baratha had failed to issue the permit as the area was state-protected and a forest conservation area.

On the permit, it was noted the company planned to build 25 villas on the 20 hectares of land. Later, it was reported that instead of building 25 villas, the company would expand the project to build 400 villas with the theme of "The Lakes - floating between two worlds."

When finished, the development would offer tourists a real forest experience.

"My company will not build 400 villas. We only plan to construct 25 villas," Hanoppo confirmed to The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Nyoman Silanawa, head of the Bali Forest Conservation Office said, "The permit to build a resort on that site was not valid as former governor Beratha did not issue it." The former governor had ordered his office to stop any development projects in the conservation area.

"The planned development project would certainly destroy the environment and the ecosystem of the forest," Silanawa added.

Dharma Putra, the company's former environment consultant, asserted that he had done an environmental assessment for the project.

"In 2005, I did an environment impact assessment for the construction of the 25 villas and concluded it was environmentally friendly, as no trees would be cut down and the villas would not be built on concrete flooring," Putra explained.

He said the resort had developed a strategy to conserve water and that the decreasing water level was due to the increasing usage from farmers in the area. "The assessment would no longer be valid if more villas were built in the forest, as the impact on the environment would be much bigger," Putra said. "This is just a big joke. The government wants to stop the lakes from drying out, and now these huge resorts, which consume millions of liters of water a day themselves, should really aggravate the situation," Agung Wardana, executive director of the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi), said.

Due to sedimentation, Lake Buyan, which was originally 500 hectares, has lost 60 hectares in the last few years.

Governor Pastika said earlier this year that he planned to find the best way to restore the lake as it had reached a critical point.