Jakarta, Oct. 20 -- The water quality in 1,066 rivers in Indonesia has improved this year compared with 2024, though most remain classified as lightly polluted, the Environment and Forestry Ministry said on Monday.

In contrast, water quality in about 841 rivers declined over the same period, according to Rasio Ridho Sani, the ministry's deputy for pollution and environmental damage control.

"We hope that the new monitoring system and data can help us take stronger action to control pollution," Sani said during the ministry's annual performance review.

From 1,989 monitoring sites across 20 watersheds, results showed that 2 percent of locations were heavily polluted, 13.7 percent moderately polluted, 62.5 percent lightly polluted, and 21...