The 400-hectare Pecatu Indah Resort being developed in Bali’s Badung district welcomed its latest addition on Monday: a waterpark with its own supply of desalinated seawater.
The three-hectare attraction, called the New Kuta Green Park, is one of several projects that will eventually make up part of the resort, which is owned by Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra, the youngest son of former president Suharto.
Made Putrawan, president director of Bali Pecatu Graha, the developer in charge of the resort, said on Monday that the desalination plant for the newly opened waterpark would also serve other facilities in the resort area.
He said these included the New Kuta Condotel, a 278-room hotel, as well as the New Kuta Golf Course, site of the 2009 Indonesian Open, and the Kelapa nightclub.
“The desalination plant can produce up to 3,000 cubic meters of fresh water every day,” Putrawan said.
Hamdani Pane, another BPG executive, said the desalination plant, located 300 meters from the water’s edge, worked by filtering the seawater twice.
He said the result was water that was technically clean enough to drink, with all of the solid particles and 99 percent of the salt removed.
He added the waste produced from the plant was carted away to a special treatment facility.
Badung district head Anak Agung Gde Agung, who officiated at the waterpark’s opening, praised the developers for building the desalination plant, which he said would prove invaluable in the midst of the current groundwater shortage across the district.
“It’s a shame that more tourism developers don’t exhibit the same sort of concern,” he said.
He added that the New Kuta Green Park would become a key alternative destination for domestic visitors, who he said were being crowded out of Kuta and other resort areas by rising prices targeted at foreign tourists.
“Not everything should be valued in dollars,” Agung said. “It’s time we started building tourism attractions that domestic tourists can afford to visit.”
Entry to the waterpark is Rp 35,000 ($3.90) for Indonesians and Rp 100,000 for foreigners.
Other attractions at the Pecatu Indah Resort include four more hotels as well as a clutch of luxury holiday villas. Putrawan said the investors included local outfits as well as those from South Korea and the Middle East.
“Tommy wants this resort to replace Kuta as the go-to place in Bali,” he said.
