Bali’s Water Crisis: Tourism Overuse Drains Aquifers
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- Bali has lost more than 6,500 hectares of rice fields in five years, a decline of over 9%, as tourism development accelerates and farmland is converted to concrete.
- Tourism consumes over 65% of Bali’s fresh water, with a single luxury resort receiving up to 50,000 litres daily via tankers—equivalent to nearly a year’s supply for a local household.
- IDEP Foundation declared Bali in water crisis in 2018 and has since documented seawater intrusion in at least six of the island’s nine districts due to over-extraction of groundwater.
- Water trucks draw from borewells like one in Jimbaran operating under a government permit, supplying hotels daily; IDEP estimates about half of Bali’s 10,000 water businesses operate illegally or without proper permits.
- Niluh Djelantik, a Bali senator and influencer, calls for a moratorium on new hotel construction and stricter enforcement of groundwater rules, citing the burden on local communities.
- Rice fields function as critical water infrastructure by slowing runoff and recharging aquifers, but their loss to development permanently disrupts natural water cycles.
Why it matters: Local Balinese households now spend up to 10% of their income on water while resorts receive tens of thousands of litres daily, exposing a stark inequity rooted in weak regulation and unchecked tourism growth that risks making coastal aquifers permanently unusable.
