Water Conflicts among Different User Groups in South Bali, Indonesia

The overexploitation of water resources in the region of South Bali, near one of the island's tourist centres, is exemplified by a subak in Sanur at the tail end of an irrigation system. Tensions between the social institutions for local water management and powerful, state-backed stakeholders in water distribution from the river Ayung have caused rural-urban water conflicts for the last 10-15 years. The case presented here illustrates how water shortages are ascribed to the dominance of the tourism industry, private companies selling bottled drinking water and regional water delivery services, all of which peasants hold responsible for crop failure in dry years. I focus on the emic perspective of the subak members on water scarcity caused by a lack of coordination between privatized and previously centralized water resource management based on economic priorities for the tourism sector and urban regions and water use for agriculture.