Seraya Timur, Darkside Of Bali Island

 This is my story in Bali. I have been living here, in over 2 Years now. it is because of my working site was here in Bali. we built a dam here in the north side of Bali Island. let me tell you a thing, if you are a tourist that come to Bali and visit the tourist spot for a couple days or month, so don't talk about Bali that much. I know this is not me like offending someone. I talk about the weather, the different of geographical situation, the unique topography, and unique hydrological cycle. let me tell you, the dark side of Eastern Side of Bali. it is not about something called tourism spot.

We talk about Bali you know. the Island of Gods, many tourist come to this place. Bali is one of the best place with a unique building, many lakes, volcanos, beautiful beaches, and nice people. Bali have several places that make people want to live and stay here. Bali is a name of Island in Indonesia, it is also a name of a province in Indonesia. and have 9 district or city. so when you come to Bali, mostly you will stay in Denpasar city and it is on the south area of the island. traveling around Bali would be interesting but when you visiting the east side of Bali. things would be different here.

Karangasem Regency is the far East of Bali Area. it is located on the most East side of Island of Bali. many people just stay in Denpasar and mostly come to Karangasem just for going to Padang Bai Port that as a Gate for Ship travel mostly to Lombok Island. you also can visiting many amazing tourism spot in this area although mostly not too famous as other location in Bali. but there are some place for recommendation too such as Asah Hill, Lempuyang Temple, Besakih Edelweis Park, and many others. But the story start from the darkside of this Area. when I talk about Karangasem to some Balinese People, they would like said that Karangasem have a problems with water, problems with poor people, and problems with criminality. it is sad to hear until you come over to this place. this is, The Dark Side of Eastern Bali.

I visited one of the most dry area in Bali that I ever come that called Seraya Timur Village. it is on Karangasem and on the most East place in Bali Island. Even the Lombok island available to see from here in a clear weather. with a sea in the east and rocky mountain in the west, Seraya Timur located in an quite isolate place in Bali Island. The main problem here is water. from Mei to October, this place will lack of water and the suffer begin. there are several villages here like Seraya and Bunutan although Bunutan have some resort and villas that dig deep well to get water in Amed Area. overall this 3 villages are very lack of water in that month.

Seraya Timur Villages
(Samsung Note 20 Camera, Ultra Wide Lens)

70% of human body are Water. so water is a very important element for human being. no water means some of activity and metabolism of human body will be disturbed. so do the people of Seraya Timur Village. they were fighting everyday just for collecting of water. pets losing their fur because of dehydrate. I have found no livestock. only chicken and some skinny goat. They plan corn with a small harvest. Indonesia have a lot of paddy and eat rice, but here they eat pop corn with salt. In this case, many young people going outside the village such as Denpasar City, Amlapura City and many other big city rather than stay here with no potential for living. leaved by their young. some road are not asphaltic road. only covered by dirt and stone. and the main problem of all that problem is water.

Why is This Place Short of Water?

I visiting this village to design Dam for water storage. but the main problem was come from unique hydrological  and Geological part. let me show you in the map where this village is from google maps.

Seraya Timur Location
(Screenshot from Google Maps)

as you see from the map above, seraya timur have an Unique location that pinched with sea on the East and Mount Seraya on the West. so do the river that formed here are very short because if rain fall from the mountain, it is only need short path to reach the sea. other condition are slippery mountain and it is fully rock and less soil. so this three part are the most responsible things that make Seraya Timur Village lack of water. why this three condition are responsible?

This three are connected each other. let we say it is rain, I mean a big rain fall to Seraya Timur village, since the river are short and have huge slope, the water will run very fast. we already know if we want to make an infiltration process, we need soil. here? the soil are lack as the water flow always bring it down to the ocean as erosion and sedimentation. all the left over from that are rock and stone. this type of coverage area like cement, only make the runoff become faster. give no time to water to infiltrate. the final result is no water can storage above and under the soil. no river and no underground water.

No water, means no fertile land. no fertile land means not enough food. not enough food mean not good health and not good health means no living people. but no people is not Indonesia. in this hard condition, Seraya timur have 714 people each square kilometers to feed. so it is a lot of people living together in a hard condition.

The land in Seraya Timur full of Rock and Stone, Lack of Soil, Make Water run Faster
(Samsung Note 20 Camera, Ultra Wide Lens)

How do People Live and Get Water?

Living in hard condition make people think to survive. each water are an important and rare resource here, you cant see much crops land here. but they plant a lot of wooden tree. are they living by cutting tree? the answer is not anymore. a few years ago, people love to cut the tree. take the wood as a fuel to light the kitchen up. it is make the situation worse. landslide happen in many place. after a long struggling from people who understand and care about nature. now days people in Seraya Timur start to plan the trees. 

people still planting corn and make corn as a daily food because corn do not need a lot of water to plant. many people live as a fisherman since this place are near to the sea. another hand, they produce weaving craft. Weaving craft are the originally product that come from this villages. This craft already known and loved by people around the world. crazy right? with that so many problem about water, the people still have a lot of to do and with a struggle, they keep living with no regret. 

After saving that as an income, the government help the people by bringing a lot of water tank to distribute water. other hand, when you come to visiting this village, each houses have a tank or big plastic tank to collecting rain water. then they use it, save it, carefully for the next summer. in august when summer and hot weather at the top, they will start to struggle and chaos begin. no water, dogs are dead, chicken are dead, plants are dead. so they sell everything before August come. this is pretty sad right? many people come to Bali, stay in Hotel and drink a lot of water, take a bath in the hotel pool, sometimes forget to close the valve. when we enjoy with a lot of water, they struggle because of water.

Valley of Seraya Timur Village
(Samsung Note 20 Camera, Ultra Wide Lens)

Dry River on August
(Samsung Note 20 Camera, Wide Lens)

I just want to share you about this situation. happen in the most famous island in Indonesia. Do not see Bali just from the beautiful Beaches, Bar, Tourism, and many other. there are some dark side of Bali and one of them lays at the most eastern part of this island.