Chapter 6: Bali, Indonesia: Kelly and the Sungai Watch “River Warriors”

Kelly Bencheghib cofounded Sungai Watch in 2020 with her brothers, Gary and Sam, in Bali, Indonesia. Their mission is to stop plastic polluting the ocean. They have grown Sungai Watch from a team of volunteers to 150 passionate locals, referred to as “river warriors.”

Sungai Watch is a registered charity in both Indonesia and the USA and is certified as a One Percent for the Planet Environmental Partner. By designing simple trash barriers and operating a collection, sorting, and upcycling system, the Bencheghib siblings have created a scalable approach to tackling plastic pollution. Indonesia is home to some of the world’s most polluted rivers, and before venturing internationally their goal is first to work in Indonesia where they have organized over 600 community clean-ups and collected more than 2.6 tons of plastic.

Kelly, educated in finance and entrepreneurship, combines her analytical and strategic skills with her brothers’ leadership, film-making, and social media expertise. She administers an annual report listing the 10 largest plastic polluters in Indonesia, aiming to hold them accountable. Kelly works on documentation, which is a time-consuming but important part of their activism. At the same time, they lobby local municipalities to improve the trash collection system, which is almost non-existent in Indonesia. They talk at schools to educate children and young people not to throw trash. Sungai Watch has started producing furniture from recycled plastic, embodying sustainability in planet, people, and profit.