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Upstream action only works if it keeps going, season after season.
Since 2025, Vela has supported Sungai Watch in intercepting plastic in Indonesia's rivers before it reaches the ocean. We introduced the partnership in From Rivers to the Sea and shared a first progress report in From Action to Impact. This update covers what has changed since: a record start to 2026 for Sungai Watch, and the first months of data from two new Vela-supported barriers in Bali.
The partnership is part of Sea the Difference, Vela's impact initiative, and of our shared membership in 1% for the Planet.
The first quarter of 2026 was the strongest Sungai Watch has reported to date. Across its network, teams collected 446,988 kilograms of waste, 37% more than in the previous quarter. They organised 205 cleanups and mobilised 12,864 volunteers, more than double the number of the quarter before.
Those figures were driven in part by an emergency. Seasonal plastic surges hit Bali's southern coast at Kedonganan, Jimbaran and Dreamland, and Sungai Watch teams spent six consecutive weeks on the shoreline, removing more than 100 tonnes of waste. One cleanup at Kedonganan brought together around ten thousand people, alongside national and provincial authorities, in the largest single response the organisation has led.
Behind the headline numbers, Sungai Watch spent the first half of the year strengthening the system that makes collection count.
In February it opened a new facility in Denpasar, bringing emergency response, volunteer coordination and community education under one roof. New sorting conveyor belts have nearly doubled sorting efficiency, and the same upgrade is planned for the organisation's other facilities.
The team also moved further into policy. It took part in strategic sessions with provincial and ministry-level leadership on waste infrastructure and the role of river interception in Indonesia's national plastic reduction targets, at a time when the national government has publicly declared waste a priority.
On 28 March, co-founders Gary, Kelly and Sam Bencheghib set off on Run for Rivers, a 1,200-kilometre run from Bali to Jakarta completed over 58 days. Along the route the team assessed river conditions across Java, held cleanups with local communities and met with regional leaders, with the aim of funding the next wave of barriers and sorting infrastructure on the most populated island on Earth.
By the time of Sungai Watch's latest report, the campaign had raised more than $335,000 toward river cleanup, with every dollar tied to a kilogram of plastic removed.
Within this wider effort, Vela funds specific trash barriers and the patrols that maintain them. Since the end of 2025, our support has been directed to two new sites in Bali: Darmasaba and Desa Nyambu.
In their first seven months of operation, these two barriers have together intercepted more than 1,500 kilograms of non-organic waste. Each site is patrolled regularly, and every collection is weighed, photographed and logged, so the results are reported per barrier rather than estimated.
These are smaller waterways than some of the sites supported previously, and the volumes reflect that. The point of upstream interception is coverage: stopping waste in the tributaries and village channels where it enters the system, before it merges into larger rivers and becomes far harder to recover.
A record quarter and a flood of volunteers show what is possible in a crisis. What prevents the next one is quieter work: barriers that stay in place, patrols that keep running, facilities that can sort what is collected, and data that shows where waste is coming from.
That is the part Vela supports. Our packaging is designed to keep plastic out of supply chains. Our partnership with Sungai Watch helps deal with the plastic that is already in the water.
Sungai Watch is now expanding west across Java, with new stations planned in Banyuwangi and Sidoarjo and additional barriers ready to install as funding is secured. A feature-length documentary on Indonesia's plastic crisis, filmed with ocean storytelling organisation SeaLegacy, is also in production.
We will continue to report on the barriers we support as new data comes in.
Looking to take action beyond intent? Join Sea the Difference and work with us to support initiatives that deliver measurable environmental impact.
Contact our team to get started.
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