East Kalimantan Provincial Government Claims Villas on the Sea Comply with Environmental Balance

The villa was built in the waters of Bontang City, East Kalimantan. ANTARA/Ahmad Rifandi.

SAMARINDA - The East Kalimantan Provincial Government (Kaltim) claims that all villas and inns built on the sea by marine tourism business actors comply with guidelines for spatial balance and environmental carrying capacity.

"If our marine space is not well regulated, we are afraid that people will use the waters uncontrollably, including building villas extensively without paying attention to the balance of spatial planning and environmental carrying capacity," said Head of Marine Space Management, Marine and Fisheries Agency (DKP) of East Kalimantan Province MAli Aripe in Samarinda, Friday, May 22.

Aripe emphasized that all forms of utilization of coastal areas and waters in the area must currently refer to the East Kalimantan Provincial Regulation Number 1 of 2023 concerning the Spatial Plan for the 2023-2042 Period.

As a concrete step in implementing the rules, the local government continues to intensify licensing facility activities for resort owners both offline and online.

In the socialization of the licensing facility for the dead sector, the East Kalimantan DKP involves cross-sector collaboration with the Maritime Services Directorate of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, the local Investment and One-Stop Service Agency (DPMPTSP), and the Tourism Agency from the provincial level to the district/city.

Through the pick-up ball approach, the East Kalimantan Provincial DKP has accelerated licensing, including just now as many as nine marine tourism business actors in Bontang City have officially held the Approval of the Conformity of Activities for the Utilization of Marine Space (PKKPRL).

"The joint team also provides direct assistance to coastal communities in managing the legality of their marine businesses through the integrated online licensing system or Online Single Submission (OSS)," said Aripe.

However, officers in the field noted that there were still technical obstacles in the form of errors in the OSS system after the enactment of Government Regulation Number 28 of 2025 which hindered the continuation of the maintenance requirements.

Responding to these technological obstacles, the relevant agencies are committed to immediately coordinating intensively with the Ministry of Investment and Industrialization to find solutions so that the process of legalizing marine tourism businesses is not delayed.

"We also conduct field monitoring to a number of water resort locations to review the feasibility and condition of buildings on the sea directly," said Aripe.

DKP Kaltim provides technical education to entrepreneurs regarding the procedure for taking the building's coordinate points as an absolute requirement for issuing sustainable marine licensing documents.