(1/6/2013)
Beritabali.com reports that the Bali Friends of the Earth (WAHLI) is urging the Bali House of Representatives (DPRD-Bali) to investigate violations that may have been committed by the newly opened Mulia Bali Resort with the construction of a breakwater.
WALHI contends that the breakwater represents a threat to the Pura Geger Hindu temple located adjacent to the hotel.
“We are asking the DPRD-Bali to be serious in handling and investigating environmental infractions committed by the Hotel Mulia,” said the Deputy Director of WALHI-Bali, Suriadi Darmoko, in a meeting with the press on Friday, January 4, 2013.
The alleged violation by the Hotel Mulia was uncovered during a visit by Commission III of the DPRD-Bali to the property located in Sawangan, Nusa Dua on Thursday, January 3, 2012. The breakwater constructed by the hotel has reportedly created new wave and tidal patterns that threaten to undermine the Hindu temple.
The chairman of WALHI in Bali, Wayan “Gendo” Suardana added that his organization’s suspicion of violations committed during the construction of the Hotel Mulia extend far beyond the breakwater threatening the foundations of a nearby temple. Said Gendo: “Since the middle of 2011, the Hotel Mulia has been committing violations by cutting shore banks, increasing the density of the shoreline with limestone, infringement on the minimum setback distances from shorelines, and construction of structures within a forbidden sacred radius surrounding a sacred temple (bhisama) – all in violation of Provincial law No. 16 on Bali zoning.”
WALHI also contends that these violations have had a direct impact on the local community by eliminating the incomes earned by seaweed farmers who once worked the shoreline and reduced the area available to the public for social and religious activities on Geger beach.
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