Pioneering Sustainable Disaster Resilience In Customary Villages In Bali

After its natural beauty, Bali Province’s most striking feature is the strong respect its people have for their traditional customs. This characteristic  extends to the management of disasters and means that great importance is given to customary structures and apporaches. The customary-village-based approach implemented by the SIAP SIAGA Program, in collaboration with the Bali Province Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) and the Bali Province Disaster Risk Reduction Forum (FPRB), is entering its final phase of trialling this year.

Bali Province hosts 1,500 customary and 716 administrative villages, so it makes sense to encourage an expanded role for customary villages in building preparedness. Despite being much larger in number, customary villages remain less accommodated, especially in disaster resilience strategies, within regulations which primarily adopt an administrative village perspective.

Anak Agung Ketut Sudiana, Chair of the Denpasar City Customary Village Council, stated that customary villages in Bali are in fact very familiar with disaster issues. This is evident from Awig-Awig, the customary law which villages enforce to stave off disasters, both natural and non-natural, as a manifestation of the core principles of Tri Hita Karana, which empahsises the  relationships between humans and The Creator, humans and humans, and humans and the environment.

‘We call disasters caused by nature panca baya, and they include linuhbaya (earthquake-induced disasters), erbaya (water-induced disasters), agnibaya (fire-induced disasters), bayubaya (wind-induced disasters), and jiwabaya (psychological-condition-related disasters or languages). We call non-natural disasters geringbaya’, said Sudiana.

At this juncture, according to Sudiana, the Customary Resilient Village Strategy developed jointly by the Bali Province BPBD and the Bali Province FPRB, with support from the SIAP SIAGA Program, becomes crucial in ensuring that customary villages’ existing disaster regulations and those mandated nationally are operating in alignment. ‘It is not only about regulations, but also about understanding and engagement from the entire customary village community’, he added.

Customary villages, as specified in Article 21 of the Bali Province Local Regulation No. 4 of 2019 concerning customary villages, have the task of bringing about kasukretan (local wisdom valuing collaboration, cooperation, and environmental awareness) in Customary Villages, which encompasses peace, prosperity, joy, and tranquillity, both in terms of skala (the seen) and niskala (the unseen).

In developing the Welfare-Based Customary Resilient Village Strategy, the Bali SIAP SIAGA Program employs two approaches. First is the Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) approach, which focuses on risk-based adaptive management tailored to customary values and integrated risk management. Second is the Participatory Disaster Risk Appraisal (PDRA), which involves engaging local communities, particularly indigenous women and customary communities. A series of meetings and discussions with multiple parties, including the Customary Village Council (MDA), Customary Community Development Office, BPBD, District/City Culture Office, and Bali Province FPRB, have resulted in the creation of Implementation Guidelines for Customary Resilient Villages Towards Kasukretan, applicable to customary villages in coastal areas.

Sudiana added that until now, customary communities’ guidelines for dealing with disasters were very simple. For example, people would sound their ‘kulkul’, a customary slit gong, as a warning sign of danger, followed by instructions from prajuru (village officials) and pecalang (customary village security officers) for residents to evacuate to a safer place. ‘These Implementation Guidelines for Customary Resilient Villages Against Disasters will serve as a reference for how to deal with different kinds of disasters in a more comprehensive manner. This is done through disaster management training and simulations’, he said.

Trialling the implementation guidelines for Customary Resilient Village towards Kasukretan

Dewi Reny Anggraeni, Head of Human Resources Development of the Bali Province FPRB, stated that the trialling process of those implementation guidelines is being carried out in 3 customary villages, namely Dukuh, Komala, and Temukus Customary Villages. All 3 are in the Disaster-Prone Area III of Mount Agung in Karangasem District. ‘The goal is to complete the trial phase in Mount Agung area by the end of June, and then continue with trials in customary villages along the coastal areas of Denpasar City’, said Dewi.

During the trial phase, which began in November 2023, multiple activities have been organised. It started with compliance testing of the village contingency plan documents with the district’s, followed by facilitators training in each village. The training is crucial as it holds the key to program sustainability and replicability in other customary villages. Involving younger people from customary villages in facilitators training is also encouraged to achieve the goal of sustainability.

The sustainability aspect is crucial because many disaster projects in Balinese villages follow a project-based approach, which is inherently short-term. Consequently, while the success stories of these projects are widely publicized, the villages are left to continue the efforts on their own without support. This situation must be addressed to ensure lasting resilience.

The drafting of Customary Village Regulations

Another equally important activity is the making of pararem, a regulation/decision of the Customary Village paruman (community assembly) as an implementing regulation for Awig-Awig. ‘It is akin to implementation and technical guidelines for customary villages. This pararem is important to officially accommodate disaster issues within customary village institutions. The passing of this pararem provides a basis for both implementation and budgeting. Therefore, the disaster pararem covers all disaster management phases up to rehabilitation process’, Dewi added.

There are several phases involved in the passing of a pararem. After being agreed upon by the paruman, the pararem must be proposed to the MDA at the subdistrict and district levels. After approval by the MDA, the pararem is sent back to the village to be submitted to the Customary Village Development Office. This last step serves more as a formality, as the substance is considered final once approved by the MDA. The phases in these customary village trials have been designed to align with the 5 points in the disaster management system, namely policy, planning, funding, institutionalisation, and capacity building.

In agreement with Sudiana, Dewi stated that the trial process has been relatively smooth because the principles of disaster management are already practised in customary villages. However, knowledge of disasters has so far stopped at the senior members of these communities. Thus, this trial process is expected to provide a space for extracting and passing down that knowledge to younger people. Fascinatingly, people in these customary communities show great enthusiasm for participating in this phase. ‘Truth be told, mobilising people in customary villages to participate in something is comparatively easier than in administrative villages. It is because customary villagers obey their bandesa (customary village chief)’, she remarked.

Of the three customary villages where trials are being conducted, Komala and Dukuh Customary Villages have completed more than half of the phases, including risk assessment, action plan, and pararem-making. Meanwhile, in Temukus Customary Village, only the introduction phase has been completed, as the rest had to be temporarily paused for the Galungan and Kuningan ceremonies. According to Dewi, it is important to learn from the experience in Temukus Customary Village. If the trials are successful, have a positive impact, and are replicated in other customary villages in Bali, there should be no additional administrative burdens placed on these villages. “In Bali, customary villages are already busy with customary and religious activities. Adding administrative burdens, such as multiple assessment forms from various agencies, might dampen this budding spirit of resilience,” she concluded.

Ensuring that the process remains streamlined and respectful of existing commitments is crucial for fostering long-term resilience in Bali’s customary villages.