Bali, long celebrated as the Island of the Gods, faced a harsh reality on September 10, 2025, when severe flooding in Bali turned deadly. Days of heavy rain caused rivers to overflow, submerging thousands of homes, damaging infrastructure, and claiming lives. Behind the extreme weather, one issue stood out as the main culprit: land conversion.
The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) reported at least 17 deaths across Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar, and Jembrana. Thousands of residents were forced to flee, while material losses were estimated in the billions of rupiah.
Experts and environmental activists stressed that while climate change intensified the rainfall, the worsening damage was tied to the loss of green land. Rice fields, forests, and natural water catchment zones have been steadily replaced with permanent buildings, stripping the island of its ability to absorb rainfall and increasing the risk of catastrophic flooding.
Land conversion refers to shifting land from its original use—such as agriculture, protected forests, or water absorption areas—into housing complexes, hotels, shopping malls, or major roads. This transformation has been rampant across Bali.
Made Krisna Dinata, Executive Director of Walhi Bali, pointed to multiple factors behind the disaster. “Land conversion, especially from agriculture into buildings, is the initial trigger of the Bali flood disaster,” Krisna explained, also citing poor spatial planning and weak waste management.
Indonesia’s Law No. 26 of 2007 on Spatial Planning requires any land conversion to consider environmental capacity. Yet in practice, violations remain widespread, with devastating consequences. The removal of water absorption areas means rainwater no longer seeps into the ground but instead rushes into rivers and urban drainage, raising water levels and causing overflow.
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The damage is not limited to flooding. Bali’s traditional irrigation system, known as subak, has also been disrupted. This centuries-old practice once balanced water distribution across farmlands while maintaining the island’s hydrological stability from upstream to downstream.
Vegetation loss further speeds up soil erosion, clogs rivers with sediment, and magnifies the impact of heavy rains. Since 2015, Bali has witnessed a steady decline in rice fields and protected forests, a trend that has left the island increasingly vulnerable.
Data from the Ministry of Environment underscores the scale of the problem. Several regencies have seen rice field losses of up to 6 percent, including 784.67 hectares in Denpasar and 2,676.61 hectares in Tabanan.
The disaster is not just about flooding. The long-term risks also include landslides, drought, and overall ecosystem degradation, threatening both the environment and the communities that depend on it.
