Bali is lush! We all know that but do you know how does it come to be one? As it turns out, Bali has 401 stems rivers of which 162 empty into the ocean. That amount of water provides life for the ricefields, the jungle and definitely us, the humans who inhabit the island. Of course, it is a nice thing to be surrounded by water that gives us life. In fact, 90% of Bali’s residents live within 1 kilometre of a river.
According to a study conducted by Bali Partnership, a team from the Bali Governor’s Office and different Environmental Agencies, an estimated 33,000 tons of plastic enter Bali’s rivers every year. That is the equivalent of 90 tons of plastic entering Bali’s rivers every day. Isn’t that worrying?
Worry no more, because we just discovered this warrior named Gary Bencheghib. 14 years ago, a courageous yet radical idea popped up in his mind, which was to clean up a river. He then co-founded an organisation called Sungai Watch with his brother and sister. Today, it has grown to become a full-fledged community-based NGO that meritoriously cleans up the rivers in Bali and currently expanding to East Java.
Our team got the privilege to speak with Gary Bencheghib at the Mangrove Forest Sarangan and contributed our time and energy to do the cleanup. We are delighted to share with you the amazing work that he has done for the community.
Background of The Story
As aforementioned, it started 14 years ago when Bencheghib was in his teenage years living in Bali. He observed the beaches and rivers during the rainy season, he saw the occurring unfortunate disaster he calls “Panen Sampah”. Motivated by his love for the environment, he convinced his sister and brother to work with him picking up the waste from the river. “I saw Pantai Kuta got dirty and dirtier year by year, it really made Bali become the island of the trash instead of the island of Gods. Our mission is really to restore rivers and ultimately to restore habitats. You know, this plastic should be nowhere near these mangroves,” said Bencheghib.
The Operation
Sungai Watch does daily cleaning and utilises unique barriers that are installed in the designated rivers. They utilise PVC and steel that are sourced locally to block the trashes from passing into the ocean. The team hire local people to become the employees who collect the trashes, measure the weight and bring them to Sungai Watch’s facility. The team sorts every piece of trash collected into 15+ categories. They also analyse and record data to fuel conversations around plastic pollution with stakeholders. Afterwards, it’s wash, shred and prepared for recycling. Sungai Watch is currently working hard to improve the end products from all waste that they have collected.
“We also set a schedule and post it for the public, so people can join us to do the cleanup on our Instagram. We also work with some communities, you know, collaborate to fight this cause,” he added. “We pay more than the waiters at Umalas or Canggu, we also provide health insurance for our employees. We really want to make sure and show people this kind of plastics or other unwanted trashes can be economical,” said Bencheghib as he was showing us an Indomie packaging covered in mud.
According to Sungai Watch 2021 annual impact report, they have installed 105 barriers, collected 333,336 tons of non-organic waste and 393,749 tons of organic waste, audited 227,842 trash, accomplished 122 cleanups, gained 55 Sungai Watch river warriors.
The End Products
Many of you may never know that trash literally can be magically turned to be anything that has value in it. You name it, furniture for your home, building materials, art installation, etc. Broken sandals that you throw away can be upcycled to become a new pair of sandals again, Sungai Watch can even amp up the design. Wait until you see that, you will not even believe that those are the same sandals that you have thrown away, ended up in the river, collected by the Sungai Watch employee subsequently upcycled to look like a very brand new!
They also produce 1x1m plastic sheets which can be turned into…. again literally any kind of product by design, bathroom walls for example. Moreover, Sungai Watch is also partnering with Niu Mobility Bali, to design Niu’s store using only upcycle products from the trashes collected from the rivers in Bali. It means that no single thing displayed and utilised in the store is newly purchased from other stores.
Other than making sure that the waste can be economical, the environmental effect is also significant. Tukad Grodogan (Grodogan River) in Denpasar has just gained some new life. The fish are coming back to the river after years of being polluted by various kinds of waste. Furthermore, there are already about 50 species of fish in this river not including the small fish fry. The types of fish that inhabit this river are mostly tilapia, in addition to carp and koi. The hard work poured in by the Sungai Watch team won’t last forever unless the local people and government are willing to collaborate in taking care of the river.
Let’s Save the World Hand in Hand
Our interview with Gary Bencheghib was closed by his powerful statement, “is this the world that we want to leave behind (for the future generation)?” He continues, “what we do here is disaster relief I wish I didn’t have to clean the river every single day.” Bencheghib also conveyed that those things will not change unless we convince the plastics producers and also government to put real regulations on what kind of things are allowed to be a product packaging. It all ends up ultimately on ourselves as consumers, how we choose to treat our waste or adjust it with our lifestyle. Most importantly, we need to stress that we have a huge fight ahead of us, in the next decade, we are predicted to be tripling plastics production. Sungai Watch also needs support from everyone, by everyone means every layer of society and many stakeholders to help hand in hand to make the change subsequently for taking care of our planet. No matter what your profession is, if you are a scientist, a doctor or an accountant or a creative worker, Sungai Watch really needs everybody in this fight to restore the nature. “Please consider helping us and joining us and checking out our work at sungai.watch or sungaiwatch on Instagram,” finished Bencheghib.
There you go! Our planet needs more warriors like Bencheghibs Siblings and the team. You can be one of those, or share this article to inspire others who might want to join this cause.
