Floods a reckoning for Bali on overdevelopment, waste management

FILE PHOTO: This picture taken on October 1, 2025 shows workers repairing an embankment of the Badung River which was damaged by flooding in Denpasar, on Indonesia's resort island of Bali. Devastating flash floods that killed at least 18 people and left four missing was the island's worst in a decade, according to Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency. It was caused partly by record rain, but was also a reckoning for years of rampant overdevelopment and a waste management system under enormous strain. - AFP

DENPASAR, Indonesia: Standing where her family home once was, Ruth Deidree Boelan closed her eyes and prayed for relatives missing in devastating flash floods that swept resort island Bali this year.

The deluge that killed at least 18 people and left four missing was the island's worst in a decade, according to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).