From our taxi on the way to the hostel after landing in Bali, my two backpacking friends pointed out a row of big posters on the side of the road advertising the 2nd Stakeholder Consultation Meeting to plan the 10th World Water Forum happening three days later. “Hey, look! Isn’t water your thing?!”

I found the free registration online, and was lucky enough to get accepted! It was a whirlwind of a two day conference and a whole story for another time.

On day two, I met someone from UNESCO who invited me to a tour of a world heritage site the next day. Most of the conference attendees (being important people with real jobs) had flights to catch and places to be, but myself being a backpacker with no itinerary until my flight home in two months, of course I said yes. As a result, I had a private full-day tour of a Subak system in Tabanan Regency!

Subak is a cultural and agricultural system that integrates religious and spiritul practices with water management, from the start of the river through dams and paddy fields and ultimately to the sea. It cultivates an intensely personal relationship between all water users and the spirit of the water itself.

Tabanan and Bengkel work together to create a community recycling and compost center, with men driving the collection trucks and women managing the sorting. They burn rice husks as the energy source to dry the rice, then use the ash in fertilizer and potting soil.

Any time a farmer takes water from the river, they make a specially curated Banten (offering) first. This is also done every sunrise and for each field the farmer tends.

Water hyacinths are used for bioremediation on the river water before it floods the paddy fields.

A pole-mounted owl nesting box is mounted between fields. Creating this habitat invites owls to the farm which eat rats and deter grain-eating birds, as a living form of pest control!

This post is a work in progress. More content to come soon!