Study Buddy (Challenger): Indonesia to halt Bali hotel construction for up to 10 years
This page is for students who want to take their reading comprehension to the next level with difficult vocabulary and questions to test their inference skills.
Indonesia’s Bali will halt hotel and villa construction to combat overdevelopment and boost food security. Photo: Shutterstock Content provided by British Council
Read the following text, and answer questions 1-9 below:
[1] Indonesia plans to suspend the construction of hotels, nightclubs and villas in popular holiday destination Bali. The aim is to combat congestion and overdevelopment while preserving agricultural land amid increasing tourism. Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan says the moratorium could stretch up to 10 years, depending on the government’s evaluation.
[2] Sang Made Mahendra Jaya, the acting governor of Bali, had identified four busy areas on the island where construction would be suspended: Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar and Tabanan. Mahendra told reporters the moratorium would tackle overdevelopment on the island for commercial purposes, primarily hotels, villas and beach clubs.
[3] Foreign arrivals have surged in Bali since it reopened for tourism after the Covid-19 pandemic. Government figures show 3.89 million foreign tourists visited Bali from January to July this year, up from 2.9 million in the same period last year. Bali has about 4.4 million permanent residents. Videos of misbehaving tourists often go viral online and create headlines. This angers residents and sparks harsh responses from social media users in Indonesia. Some 340 foreigners were deported from Bali last year over violations that included overstaying visas, working illegally and engaging in inappropriate behaviour at sacred sites.
[4] Made Krisna Dinata, executive director of environmental group Walhi’s Bali chapter, said the discussion around a moratorium on hotel and villa construction in Bali was something that should have happened long ago. “Bali is now overbuilt,” he said. “Tourism has had significant damage on Bali. The clearest indicator of this is that many green spaces have now been turned into buildings.”
[5] Government figures show there were 541 hotels in Bali last year, up from 249 a decade ago. Krisna noted that overdevelopment is reducing rice fields and agricultural land, which can pose serious long-term food security risks. “The rapid expansion of tourism accommodation directly correlates with land conversion, which has significant impacts on Bali’s ecosystem and environment,” he said, noting that many of these projects were extractive.
[6] Hotels, for instance, require high amounts of water consumption – often at disproportionate amounts compared to domestic needs. Traditional water irrigation systems used for rice production have also been affected, according to Krisna. He said suspending the construction of new hotels and villas would be a crucial step towards protecting the environmental landscape. But he added there should also be efforts to restore the affected environment and enforcement of “strong regulations for environmental protection”.
[7] Agung Wardana, an associate professor of environmental law at Gadjah Mada University, expressed scepticism about the new moratorium plan, saying the policy was “too little, too late”.
[8] “Tourism expansion provides easy money for local elites [through] rent-seeking practices,” he said, noting that the moratorium plan would need to address and navigate these challenges.
Source: South China Morning Post, Reuters, September 10
Questions
1. According to paragraph 1, what sorts of development are being targeted by the moratorium?
A. industrial facilities and infrastructure
B. government offices and public services
C. tourist accommodation and entertainment venues
D. agricultural and forestry projects
2. In paragraph 2, in what specific areas of Bali will construction be halted, and why?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. According to paragraph 3, Bali has experienced a … in tourism since the Covid-19 pandemic.
A. slight increase
B. significant resurgence
C. dramatic decrease
D. slight stagnation
4. What measure has the Indonesian government taken to address issues related to undesirable behaviour from foreign tourists according to paragraph 3?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. What is Krisna’s attitude towards the proposed moratorium in paragraph 4?
A. supportive
B. indifferent
C. opposed
D. uncertain
6. What does the word “extractive” suggest about the projects mentioned in paragraph 5?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
7. Find a word or phrase in paragraph 4 that refers to “areas of natural vegetation”.
____________________________
8. How does the expansion of hotels and villas impact Bali’s food supply according to paragraphs 5 and 6?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
9. In paragraph 8, what does Agung believe is necessary for the moratorium plan to be effective?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Answers
1. C
2. Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar and Tabanan because these regions are currently being overdeveloped.
3. B
4. It has deported some of these foreigners.
5. A
6. They involve the removal of natural resources for development purposes. (accept all reasonable answers)
7. green spaces
8. These types of accommodation require a lot of water, often at disproportionate amounts compared to domestic needs. They also affect traditional water irrigation systems long used for rice production in Bali.
9. He believes that the moratorium needs to address and navigate the challenges posed by property development and rent-seeking activities from local elites. (accept all similar answers)