Honestly? It wasn't even my idea at first. In Grade 11, we presented what we are working on to John Hardy at Bambu Indah, and I was totally lost about what to do for my project. So John had this list of ideas for students who didn't know what to do, and he mentioned investigating Aqua by Danone.‍That really stuck with me because I'd seen the plastic pollution everywhere in Bali, and I knew how bad it was. But as I went along, I realized Aqua isn't the only water brand out there. They're just a symptom of the wider problem.

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The real problem is that 92% of people supposedly have "access to safe water" in Bali—but if you ask anyone living here if they drink tap water, they'll say no. That wording makes it sound like you can drink tap water, but it just means they have access to piped water. You still can't drink it.‍

I saw plastic on the side of the road all the time, but when you start looking at the data, you realize how massive the problem actually is. Last week I visited a Plastic Bank location - it's an enterprise where collectors bring in plastic that gets turned into pellets and sold to pharmaceutical companies. The man there said they collect 100 metric tons (100.000 kilos) every month. A whole big bag from one collector was just six kilos.

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There's so much plastic in Bali that you think they're doing a great thing, but they need so many more people collecting. You can't really wrap your head around the scale of how bad it is. And then only like 10% of plastic actually gets recycled. The other 90%? Landfill or burning. When you burn plastic, 2.9 liters of CO2 gets released. Sometimes in the morning I open my door and have to shut it immediately because the air is so thick and smells terrible. It's all connected.

There haven't been massive changes yet - the big impact will come when I go to that remote school in East Lombok during spring break and actually build the rainwater harvesting system there. That's when we'll see real, tangible change for that community.

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Right now, the impact is more about awareness from my petition. Hopefully there will be enough signatures to make a real change and for people within Indonesia to recognize the issue. I'm also building a recharge well in a local Subak to replenish groundwater, which is pretty badly depleted here. That's been in the works since October 2025, and it's only now getting funded and starting construction. So the visible changes are still coming - they just take time.

Two years ago I was a very different person. I feel so much more confident working with adults, organizations, and just having more mature situations. I'd never been in a meeting or interview before starting this project. Having to step into that adult role - going to meetings, making sure you're prepared - it's all new.

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Working with the local school in Lombok makes me realize how privileged I am, not even just with water access but with my opportunities versus theirs. These children are so happy and they really don't have much. Public speaking is huge too. My first presentation in front of classmates, teachers and parents - I was so nervous - I'd never spoken in front of about 60 people before. But the Green School community is probably the best audience because they always want you to do well. After seeing all the questions and support, it gave me a morale boost. We're always too critical of ourselves.