What happened
Bali Governor Wayan Koster has ordered Badung Regent I Wayan Adi Arnawa to put clean water supply in Kuta Selatan, the southern district of the Bukit peninsula, at the top of his agenda. Residents there had gone a week without water from the mains. Koster spoke on October 10, 2026, during a signing ceremony for a low-emission zone agreement at Purnama Beach in Gianyar.
The instruction was public and blunt. The governor called the situation bad news and told the regent he needed to act now.
Images from the area show the scale. On September 29, residents of the Beranda Bukit housing estate in Kutuh village queued for clean water, in a photo released by the Tirta Mangutama utility itself. Kuta Selatan covers Jimbaran, Nusa Dua, Ungasan, Pecatu and Kutuh, some of the Bukit areas most in demand among investors.
What the governor asked for
Koster set out three steps. First, map the parts of southern Badung where water is short. Second, start distributing water there straight away. Third, do it before residents are forced to queue up and buy water themselves.
Wherever water is lacking, he said, water should go there first.
He tied the issue to Badung's finances. The regency collects around Rp 6 trillion a year in own-source revenue, known as PAD. Koster said it should not become a joke that a regency with such high revenue has residents queuing for water. He also warned that if the story went viral, it would be the governor who got the call from a minister in Jakarta.
The regent's response
Adi Arnawa did not dispute the picture. He acknowledged that water in southern Badung is in a critical state and described it as a long-standing problem. Born in Pecatu village, he said supply there has been limited since he was a child.
He blames the resource balance. Groundwater on the peninsula cannot keep up with the growing population of southern Badung.
For now, water is pushed to higher ground through additional pipelines. In parallel, the regency is looking for new sources, which the regent described in more detail.
The plan: recycled wastewater and desalination
The first solution is already in use. It is MBR, a membrane bioreactor process that turns treated wastewater into clean water. Output is still modest, but the regent says it helps meet residents' needs in the south.
The second is desalination. Adi Arnawa has asked Perumda Air Minum Tirta Mangutama, Badung's water utility, to bring the technology in quickly. He pointed out that neighbouring Klungkung regency already runs such a system.
Desalinated water will be sold commercially, because the technology is expensive. Even so, the regent says residents will be able to buy it more cheaply. The source does not explain how the price will be set.
He sees Pecatu, the village near Uluwatu, as the most suitable site. For now, water reaches the area through extra pipelines that pump it uphill from lower ground.
What is new, and what it means for the market
Water shortages in Pecatu, Ungasan and the wider Kuta Selatan area have been reported before. What is new is that the governor has stepped in personally and that the regency has named specific technologies and the most suitable site for desalination.
The regent himself links water to investment. He expects desalination to attract more investors to Pecatu, and with more investment, demand for water will rise further. That is the key signal: water demand in the south grows in step with villa and hotel construction.
No launch date, capacity or price per cubic metre has been announced. For now this is a direction of travel, not a ready project.