An online petition calls for the government of Bali to reopen the island's beaches, to again start allowing people to access them as they obey social distancing rules.
The petition, started on Change.org by a user identified as Rafi Papazian, aims to introduce the idea of a “filtered access” to Bali's beaches under the supervision of local village officials, in order to allow surfers, runners, casual walkers, and people belonging to the same household to gain entry.
At the online petition, Rafi Papazian wrote that:
Walking on the beach and Doing sport activities like surfing or running, while respecting the confinement rules (social distancing, max 5 people, etc) could be allowed too.
Arguments of administrators is that beaches get really crowded. But filtering instead of preventing is also possible. Filtering people coming alone with their surf board, walking with their dog or running by themselves SHOULD be a possibility.
Officials in the famous island of Bali in Indonesia, have temporarily closed tourist sites since late March, including access to the beaches.
Badung regency, for example, has extended the temporary closure of tourist sites in the area until at least May 29 in order to curb the spread of the novel 'COVID-19' coronavirus on the island.
Though signs and barriers have been put up on various beaches, some people have evidently ignored them and trespassed. There was one viral video on social media back in April showing how a foreigner removed a sign to enter a closed tourist spot, for example.
While there were considerably more violations in the island, the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) in Badung said that overall, the public has been much more compliant to obey the temporary rules that are in place.
“Until now the people’s compliance and obedience to the advisory and instruction have been pretty good, even when there’s small ripples that go viral, but overall it’s been much better,” said I Gusti Agung Ketut Suryanegara, the head of Satpol PP Badung.
The temporary closures and reopening of beaches have been a pretty common topic for cities and towns that are near the sea across the globe amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
