Tourists visiting Bali’s Echo Beach in Canggu this weekend may see some important reconstruction work underway.
Over the last week, as heavy rains, high tides, and storms have hit the island, sinkholes have appeared, sidewalks have been destroyed, and flooding has triggered even more potholes to appear across the region.
Down at Canggu’s Echo Beach heavy rains triggered a sinkhole to appear in the patio area of the beach car park and cafe area. The massive sinkhole took with it panic tables and umbrellas, and a section of the sidewalk next to the beach itself also fell into the ground.
Tourists visiting Echo Beach should be particularly mindful of the condition of the sidewalk, which now features dangerous drops and broken concrete slabs that are both heavy and sharp in places.
Though an all too familiar reality for many of Bali’s sidewalks, the sinkhole beneath the broken pavement is especially deep.
By Thursday afternoon, local construction workers had already started to fix the broken beach walk and the sinkhole in the car park area, though even with community and government support, the site could take many days or weeks to fix well.
Echo Beach is one of Bali’s most popular sunset spots, and those planning on visiting the community hangout over the Christmas and New Year holidays with young children or dogs should be extra mindful of their walking route.
Regardless of the sinkhole and broken sidewalk, on the evening of Thursday, 19th December, tourists chose to visit the sunset lookout spot and chose to both walk and sit just inches from the open sinkhole, a move that many felt was an ill-advised risk considering the instability of the area.
At Batu Belig Beach, located between Canggu and Seminyak, concrete pavement blocks were also dislodged by the high tide and heavy rainfall on Thursday, 19th December.
In a similar vein, tourists visiting any of the beaches between Seminyak and Canggu should be wary that the sidewalks and concrete beach walks are all constructed in a similar way and could be unstable underfoot.
Seeing the situation at Echo Beach this week, Canggu locals and expats have questioned whether this kind of disaster was only a matter of time. It is clear that the concrete pavement slabs were laid without any kind of foundation or reinforcements.
Many hope that the reconstruction efforts will be implemented with greater consideration of the environmental conditions that the sidewalk and concrete tidal wall must be able to withstand.
In November, a similar fate befell the new beach walk at the area in Seminyak when high tides and heavy rains dislodged dozens of the newly installed concrete slabs.
Bali is, without exaggeration, facing one of the most intense and devastating monsoon seasons in recent history, and there are still many months to go.
Across Canggu, the combination of the high vacation season and the monsoon rains has a huge impact on tourists and locals.
Updates from the Canggu Shortcut this week show that the gridlock went so badly that a journey from one side of the cut-through to the other, which should only take 5 minutes, took over an hour.
Police and traffic officers have been deployed across the North Kuta area, including in the popular resorts of Canggu and Seminyak, in a bid to keep traffic moving safely and efficiently throughout the Christmas and New Year holidays.
In light of the peak party season kicking off in Bali’s nightlife hotspots, police and security teams will also be increasing patrols and working alongside security offers at entertainment venues to ensure that tourists are safe and public order is maintained as Bali welcomes over 1.3 million tourists to the island for the festive vacation.
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Laurie Hendricks
Monday 23rd of December 2024
Trash and debris brought onto the beaches washed down from the rivers is DISGUSTING! The lands are littered and dirty. The waters are contaminated. Why does nobody care? I don’t go to the fish market because the trash is so bad. Why isn’t there a trash collection system in place? It makes no sense! The government has a responsibility to protect the land and its people for future generations. Clearly they don’t care.
Implement a trash collection system with trucks and bins (in America it’s a profitable business and it would create jobs for the people) then make trash collection services MANDATORY for all households.
Educate the locals (distribute resources and bins they need for containing their trash), impose serious penalties for residents who throw trash into rivers and onto the land. Hire officials to police and impose fines.
DO SOMETHING!
Shorty
Wednesday 25th of December 2024
@Laurie Hendricks,
The major problem is not collection, but disposal after collection.
Exp
Wednesday 25th of December 2024
@Laurie Hendricks, 1. In my area there are regular truck collecting trash. I have been told those with small income do not even need to pay for trash collection. 2. There is heavy fines up to 50 juta and up to 3m jail for throwing or burning trash. 3. Bins are not mandated, most people who support trash collection just leave their bag outside to be picked up. Often raided by cats and dogs. 4. Officials are already hired. They are the Satpol PP (civil police)
Despite the above, many local people throw their trash bags into the nearest drain or just burn it (as I witness daily). They cannot help themselves. They look at this as a human right. They are no worse than their leaders.
Randy
Tuesday 24th of December 2024
@Laurie Hendricks, trash collection companies are privatized in the US. In larger US cities, people leaving trash in outdoor public places is still a huge problem. It’s an impossible task to move mountains when to educate people the environmental consequences of leaving trash around. And this is what I would respond when people do NOT pick up after themselves or leaving trash in public, “would you leave trash in your own living room.”
Nyoman
Sunday 22nd of December 2024
Tourists need to pay more tax or donation to fix it. They use it most of the times. They should pay.
Blue
Monday 23rd of December 2024
@Nyoman, Tourist are already paying western prices for goods and services, sales and Bali tourist tax. Maybe it's about time that money actually goes into quality infrastructure that is enjoyed by both tourists and WNI. Tourists already pay!
Steve bm
Monday 23rd of December 2024
@Nyoman, lokals need to learn western standards and not do micky mouse jobs
James
Monday 23rd of December 2024
@Nyoman, Hahahahahahahaha you are so obvious a troll
Rusty212
Saturday 21st of December 2024
Back in 2004, when the now named Echo beach was called Batu Mejan.There were sink holes near the temple Now, with all the rampant construction right up to the sea wall, nature's causing havoc with high tides and bug swells.When will people wake up and leave these areas natural instead of building cafes bar's etc.😡😡
Glark
Saturday 21st of December 2024
About the pavement sinkholes. Your story didn't address at all the responsibility of construction companies and regulating officials. These two players are putting peoples safety and lives at risk. Pls make a story of the preventive actions taken by construction supervising officials and construction companies to make sure this never happens again. Pls note that high tides and heavy rains at Bali happen every year.