AKSI Brantas: Dutch-Indonesian partnership

East Java, Indonesia · 2019–2024

The Brantas River stretches 320 kilometres through East Java, supplying drinking water to tens of millions of people. Despite significant progress in reducing industrial pollution since 2000, household plastic waste, microplastics, and the loss of riverside forests remained pressing challenges — particularly for communities living along the river.

AKSI Brantas brought together Indonesian and Dutch organisations to tackle these challenges from multiple angles: community empowerment, water quality research, and clean technology for local enterprises.

The partnership

AKSI Brantas was a collaboration between Makara, the Indonesian environmental NGO ECOTON, Delft University of Technology, and Dutch engineering company Tauw — in close partnership with three local authorities: the river authority BBWS-Brantas, state water company Perum Jasa Tirta-1, and the provincial Department of Environment and Forestry.

Each partner contributed distinct expertise: ECOTON and Makara led community engagement and gender equality work; TU Delft and Tauw brought water quality research and engineering support for small riverside enterprises; and local authorities helped translate community findings into policy.

Makara’s specific role was to strengthen the capacity of women’s groups and youth — supporting them to document pollution, advocate with authorities, and develop practical solutions. This work was guided by the AKSI Brantas approach for community empowerment, an integrated methodology developed together with ECOTON.

What it achieved

Over five years, the partnership produced concrete, lasting results along the Brantas River:

✔ 12 women’s and community groups united in an alliance for river protection

✔ 6 refill stores established in a shared network, reducing single-use plastic at the source

✔ 85% less waste sent to landfills in model neighbourhood Kampung SIBA KLASIK

✔ Fish sanctuaries and moringa riverbank forests officially recognised by village authorities

✔ Contributed to municipal regulations against single-use plastics in Kediri

✔ Ecotourism programmes attracting hundreds of visitors, including university students

“We just want to make a real difference. By finding simple ways to deal with waste, we can keep our village clean, our river healthy, and maybe even inspire other communities to do the same.” — Desi, member of the zero-waste education team in Kampung SIBA

Support this work

With your contribution, we can train more women and youth, restore more riverbanks, and free more villages from plastic.

Stichting Makara · IBAN: NL13 SWNB 1571 2716 57 · BIC (SWIFT): SWNBNL22 · info@makara.earth