East Bali Petitions Indonesia's President

(12/11/2010)

A five-day early December 2010 working visit by Indonesia's president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to Bali to participate in the Bali Democracy Forum included a visit to the village of Bugbug in the regency of Karangasem to inaugurate a large prawn hatchery project.

The people of Karangasem used the presidential visit as an opportunity to convey three suggestions to Yudhoyono connected to the future development of their region.

Those suggestions were:

• To provide more national funding to continue the cruise terminal project at Tanah Ampo at Manggis in Karangasem.

• To move ahead with a water distribution project from Karangasem's Telaga Waja river that will provide much needed water to the Karangasem region of Kubu.

• That the new by pass highway connecting Denpasar and Kusamba be extended to also connect the island's capital with Karangasem.

Earlier promises by Indonesia's Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries to allocated Rp. 70 billion (US$7.8 million) in the 2011 budget to extend the length of the Tanah Ampo pier have apparently not materialized in the final draft of the budget.

The Karangasem petitioners are also asking for more funding to accelerate the diversion of badly needed water from the Telaga Waja river to "dry" region Kubu.

The third demand, to extend the present IB Mantra By Pass to Karangasem, is based on a local survey demonstrating the viability and urgent need of such a road project.