One Year After Bali's Sarbagita Floods, Advocacy Group Sues Government Over Land Use and Waste Failures

On September 9-10, 2025, Bali's Sarbagita region (Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar, and Tabanan) was hit by heavy rainfall of 50-150mm, triggering major flooding. The BMKG Ngurah Rai weather station recorded 99mm of rainfall within 24 hours. The disaster killed 18 people, displaced more than 200 residents, and flooded Badung and Kumbasari markets, causing thousands of traders to lose their livelihoods. The Dewa Ruci underpass was also submerged, and flash flooding occurred in the Batubulan-Sukawati area.

Marking the one-year anniversary, the advocacy team from Pulihkan Bali (Movement to Restore Bali's Environment and Sustainability) has filed a lawsuit at the Denpasar District Court against more than a dozen government institutions, ranging from parliament, governors, and regents/mayors to ministries and the President of Indonesia. Mediation proceedings are expected to begin soon.

The group argues the flooding was not caused by extreme rainfall alone but reflects decades of governance failures, including massive land-use conversion, insufficient public green space in urban areas, unsustainable waste management that clogs drainage systems, poorly integrated watershed management, absence of adequate early flood warning systems, and inadequate climate policy.

Data presented by the group shows the Sarbagita region lost 6,522 hectares of rice fields between 2019 and 2024, averaging 1,087 hectares annually. Denpasar alone lost 38% of its rice fields, dropping from 2,164 hectares in 2019 to 1,341 in 2024. Gianyar regency saw the largest absolute loss at 1,745 hectares, followed by Badung at 771 hectares. The group links this to a post-pandemic construction boom driven by digital nomad growth and a surge in foreign property investment—up 92% in Badung and 81% in Denpasar.

Waste generation in Bali has also risen sharply, from 800,000 tons in 2019 to more than 1.2 million tons in 2024, with an estimated 52% left unmanaged and roughly 33,000 tons entering Bali's waters annually.

The lawsuit calls for a Climate Justice Bill covering mitigation, adaptation, rehabilitation, and compensation for climate-related losses; regional regulations to control land conversion and protect productive agricultural land; and a moratorium on business permits for investments or development projects that could negatively impact Bali's environment and ecosystems.