Found one
Markit I am glad you visited Lombok and sorry you found it disappointing. We had an exceptionally long dry season. Down here in Kuta, the rains only started in January, we finally had to drill a new 48m bore as we could not keep up with the supply of water needed to be trucked in. Kuta is far from the best beach in this area. As I always tell guests it is ok for a photo stop but much better to head to Tanjung Aan, Mawun, or Selong Belanak to relax and swim. Tanjung Aan is my favourite and Warung Turtle there has free sunbeds and umbrellas if you buy a drink. Late last year Kuta would have been looking worse than usual. October 2013 the government came and demolished all the beach front businesses, bars, cafes, even a couple of sets of bungalows. They were all illegal and most owners, knew that and knew the day would eventually come. (There were a couple of western owners who bought and built blindly without checking if they could build on a public beach!) Nobody much tried to build again until about a year later when the government built a very bad path along the beach (which was falling apart within the year), an office & two public toilets. At that time a few people started building temporary type bars and warungs again. Soon there were a whole load of beach bars. The government came and confiscated all the booze but they reopened quickly with a new stock. So a couple of weeks later the government came back again and demolished them all again. That would have been just before your visit. So there was still a lot of rubble and rubbish around. That was all cleaned up for the president's visit last month. They also tried to clean up the beach of all the stray dogs for the visit. But "Kuta Lombok Dogs" and local other local residents, managed to get the cull stopped.
When I first came here in 98, the locals used to say in 10 years time it will be like Kuta Bali and I used to reply "not in my life time" However there has been a boom in development. When we opened in 2004 there were less than 20 accommodation options in the area there are now over 200 and more being built all the time. The big development is coming. My favourite spot, Warung Turtle that I mentioned earlier will be gone in a year - as it is located on a plot where Club Med is to be built. Supposedly a Pullman Hotel is also confirmed. Personally I hope not. Locals think these will offer jobs but most locals do not have the skills to work in a big hotel so I suspect staff will be brought in from Bali & Java.
The area is very beautiful. Yes in the wet and soon after it is much more lush. In the dry it becomes barren which has its own beauty. Markit, if you should ever decide to give Lombok another go, let me know and I will show you some of the beautiful beaches South Lombok is famed for.