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Sunday, January 3, 2021

Let the Flood Waters Come

With the rainy season this year, which indeed has been a rather soggier one than usual, we've had a constant flood at the head of my street and at isolated spots along the street closer to my home. The problem is that the head of the street is bordered by what seems to be a main irrigation ditch meant to route water flowing from all the nearby fields, and this ditch has collected mud to the extent that there is no longer a ditch. The 'river' of flood waters, therefore, flows right down the street and into the main street, Jalan Hangtuah. The water on the street is sometimes as deep as a half foot, some of it flowing, some of it just standing. 

As no one in an official capacity seems much interested in the situation, the neighborhood community decided to gather this morning and try to shovel the mud out of the ditch themselves, but they were soon driven away from this task by yet more rain. And at any rate, if you ask me, this project would be doomed to failure from the start anyway, as it seems clear that the water from all the nearby fields would feed more mud into ditch just as quickly as it could be removed. Nor am I in any condition to be helpful, given that I have a hard enough time with just walking, let alone trying to bend and shovel.

Ostensibly, I suspect, the local banjar is responsible for such things (banjar being the name for the Balinese administration in charge of the neighborhood), and yet assistance sought from them has as yet produced no results. Ironic, I guess, that the word banjar is so close to the word banjir, which means flood. 

But hey, the rainy season can be messy. It is what it is. Especially in Bali. In fact, that ought to be their provincial motto. 


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