What water costs
Pecatu village in South Kuta depends on water trucks. NusaBali reports that a 5,000-litre tanker used to cost Rp 250,000 and now costs about Rp 300,000. In remote areas the price reaches Rp 400,000.
The shortage hits more than households. It raises running costs for hotels and rental homes, and continued tourism building in South Kuta keeps pushing demand up.
What legislators propose
I Made Sumerta, a Badung DPRD member from Pecatu, suggests using two existing reservoirs. One or two government-run boreholes there could act as a backup supply and reduce private drilling by residents and investors.
He stresses that technical and environmental studies must come first. In the meantime, he wants more water truck deliveries and a map of available vehicles.
Why supply is short
Badung DPRD speaker I Gusti Anom Gumanti pointed to two causes. The long drought has cut flow from the Estuari dam, the main source for the south, and pumps have broken down.
Parliament has approved a capital injection for the regency water utility, Perumda Air Minum Tirta Mangutama, and is pressing for quick pump repairs so supply to Pecatu and Ungasan is not interrupted.
The private well problem
The legislator links his proposal directly to private drilling. When the network falls short, residents and investors sink their own wells.
Heavy drilling drains groundwater. In his view, a public backup source would ease pressure on the aquifer.
Neither report gives dates for pump repairs or new boreholes. For now the area's main fallback remains the same: water trucks.