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Social media supporting arts activists
Benoa Bay: The bay is a natural drain for south Baliâs rivers
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span class="inline inline-center">Benoa Bay: The bay is a natural drain for south Bali's rivers. A proposal to reclaim more than 60 percent of this area could cause massive flooding to low lying communities on the rim of the basin.
Social media and social activism again proved a marriage of minds on Sunday as hundreds of ForBALI supporters descended on Padang Galak beach for the Sanga Bhuana Arts Festival protesting the reclamation of Benoa Bay.
Within just two days' notice of the event receiving its permit from local police, artists, musicians, intellectuals and the public joined forces through the arts, demanding the revision of the Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 51/2014 that allows for Benoa Bay to be commercialized.
Passed in the last months of former president Susilo Bambang Yudoyono's term in office, the decree overturns the former president's earlier decree protecting the bay as a conservation zone.
The protestors argue that the 700-hectare reclamation of the bay would severely impact the integrity of Bali's environment and culture. The developer Tirta Wahana Bali International (TWBI)'s website twbi.co.id published in October an artist impression of the US$2.3 billion reclamation project that shows the development straddling the Bali Mandara toll with roads connecting a jigsaw of islands throughout much of the bay. The image tagline reads 'environmentally friendly development', other images are tagged 'mangrove conservation' and 'prioritizing Indonesian values and customs'.
The website, however, seems to be inaccessible recently.
'The crowd here is due to our friends on social media. We only got the go ahead two days ago for this art and culture event for Tolak Reklamasi [Reject Reclamation]. We hope Perpres No. 51/2014 is withdrawn as a result of this art and music event,' says sound engineer and one of the event organizers, Anom Darsana of Antida Music Production.
Using the arts and music to share its message, the Bali forum known as ForBALI explained the proposed reclamation of Benoa Bay to develop tourist islands would likely cause extreme flooding, the destruction of the aquatic environment and severely impact the local communities surrounding the bay. Encircled by mangrove forests and fed by five rivers, the bay measures around 1000 hectares. The 700-hectare proposal would reclaim 70 percent of the bay.
A 12-meter-high wire and aluminum fist clenching an excavator was Sunday's centerpiece sculpture. A collaboration by architectural designer, Yoka Sara and artists, Keduk and Marmer Herayukti, the artwork was a symbol of Shiva's wrath.
'Shiva, when angry, throws fire and at the same time Shiva hears our prayers,' says Yoka of the work that lit up the night sky when set ablaze.
Renowned installation artist, Made Bayak, defaced a giant terrain map of Bali during the reclamation rejection event. Across the map showing Bali's rivers and mountains, valleys and seas, Bayak wrote the words investment, revitalization, reclamation over and over until the once pristine map was suffocated under the weight of the graffiti, a graphic metaphor for the island oft described as paradise. Bands played long into the night as other artists created giant murals ' all had donated their time and talents in support of the ForBALI, conservationists and the public.
High profile lawyer and activist, the charismatic Wayan Gendo Suardana galvanized Bali's youth on Sunday when he spoke from the central stage during the art event. From the crowd voices thundered 'Tolak Reklamasi' in unison with the activist who had said in an earlier interview that the reclamation threatened flooding for villages around the bay, the airport and other low lying areas of Denpasar city.
'Several rivers lead into Benoa Bay, but the mouth leading from the bay to the open sea is very narrow so, within four hours of rain, the sea could rise to dangerous levels within the bay from the river run off,' says Gendo.
His view is supported by the Conservation International Indonesia (CII) head Ketut Sarjana Putra who says the modelling suggests water levels within the bay would rise by four meters during heavy rains. Villages nearby are just one to two meters above the water line. They would be flooded severely, explained Putra.
'Suwung Kauh, Sanur Kauh, some parts of Sidakarya and Pemogan are located around 2 meters above sea level. These areas would possibly flood. I would predict annual flooding may also happen in low lying areas of Denpasar City,' says Putra via email.
At stake, say reclamation opponents, is an environmental and social disaster far greater than that believed to have been caused by the reclamation of 400 hectares of sea into land on Serangan Island in the 1990s.
Saba village assistant head of culture on Serangan Island, Wayan Loka, says he is opposed to the Benoa Bay reclamation as he had witnessed firsthand the destruction of his home from the reclamation of its surrounding sea.
'Where we are sitting was once the beach. As for the mangroves, prawns, fish, seaweed and coral, they are all dead due to habitat loss. We don't need to reclaim land from the sea as there are still a lot of areas to develop, such as Singaraja, Jembrana, the west of Bali,' says Loka sitting on his office veranda overlooking the limestone slag heaps that used to be ocean.
Serangan was surrounded by a coral reef and supported hereditary fishermen and a thriving tourism industry. Today it is a limestone wasteland. Bali Turtle Island Development (BTID) that undertook the reclamation in the 1990s was bankrupted, says Loka.
The CII post-bay-reclamation modelling shows potential for the catastrophic loss of mangroves, fish and crustacean nurseries, the smothering of corals and shifts in natural saline levels within the bay.
'As the bay would be inundated with mostly freshwater, the salinity within the bay may be altered and mangroves would be affected. The most critical impact from reclamation is that it will produce fine sediments that will smother coral reef systems surrounding the Nusa Dua, Sanur and Serangan areas,' says Putra.
He points out the mangrove forest and seagrass in the bay represent 80 percent of the breeding habitat for local marine species.
'If the bay is reclaimed, the ecological function of the bay as a kitchen and nursery for marine species, including fish, crabs and shrimp will no longer exist,' says Putra.
Tourism could also be affected, explained Putra, if areas near the airport and the city of Denpasar face annual flooding due to the reclamation.
'Bali will have many world-class hotels but no visitors and many serious environmental problems. Like the Balinese poem which says 'birds die in a golden cage,' he said.
Sitting on the brim of Benoa Bay basin is the village of Tanjung Benoa. Here five star hotels and restaurants nest cheek-by-jowl with tiny warung (stall) and fisherman's villages.
Bu Ketut has a kiosk about 500 meters from the bay. Like many in her village, she fears for the future. 'Flooding. We are all worried and panicking about flooding if the reclamation happens. We oppose this reclamation,' said Bu Ketut, who is not alone in her opposition as the hundreds at Padang Galak showed on Sunday.
' Photos by JP/JB Djwan
