Indonesia’s first and biggest dam gets more critical each year as the waste from fish farm continues to accumulate and the illegal population sprawled out of control to its peak at some thirty thousands, a number that had caught the governor’s attention, vowing to reduce it to the accepted quota at 4,000.
The recent path to industrialization takes shape at a dramatic scale. And it remains to be seen how fast and active the residents of Babelan will react to social changes when this road eventually gets crowded.
The native village of Sasak Ende, two hours ride from the city center of Lombok, has been a major international tourism destination in this island for decades. The near absence of trash along the road and in the vicinity is an evidence just how serious the local administration takes the steps to keep the prime status of this place of interest.
Centralistic government of the past and its marked downfall in 1999 has given rise to a system overhaul that offers autonomy rights across the vast archipelago of Indonesia. Years later, some said in apprehension that we may not be ready yet for such dramatic changes.
An eight-hour trip from Jakarta brought us to a small town in Surade district of Sukabumi regency, West Java. The journey continued 30Km southwest across stony path to a stretch of hill overlooking a river where the beauty nature could best afford blended with the complexity life had brought upon human beings.
