Bali has lost more than 6,500 hectares of rice fields in five years, a decline of over 9%, according to the Bali national land agency, and the water those paddies once stored is now moving by the truckload to hotel pools [1]. A paddy slows runoff and recharges the aquifer; sealed under concrete, that function is gone permanently. The Guardian followed the water rather than the tourists, tracing it from a permitted Jimbaran borewell — its owner holding a permit from Jakarta — through a wholesaler who resells it by the tanker to villas and resorts [1].

The numbers explain the anger. IDEP, a Bali NGO that declared a water crisis in 2018, estimates a resort tourist uses 2,000-4,000 litres daily for pools and laundry while the average resident gets by on 30-50 [1]. Tourism consumes over 65% of the island's fresh water; one luxury resort takes eight to 10 tanker deliveries a day, up to 50,000 litres, enough to supply a nearby household for nearly a year.

Anti-tourism feeds blame digital nomads in yoga pants, but the extraction is licensed and industrial. Farmer I Putu Partayasa, who earns about 1.5m rupiah (£62) a month, put it plainly: "Companies take our water and bring it to the tourism places" [1]. In Uluwatu, Kadek Siska's mother leaves the taps on to hear if water is flowing; a 5,000-litre tanker costs 350,000 rupiah, eroding a tenth of household income. Seawater intrusion now reaches six of nine districts. No metered registry says who takes how much, or whether the aquifer recovers.

-- DARA OSEI, London