Transcription
The water is disappearing all over the world. It is a river. Where do we go? Here there are only stones. This documentary shows why. This is not agriculture, this is agribusiness. We are not as important as those people. A search for those responsible for this crisis. We don't have to send animal feed all over the world. That is wrong. They steal water from future generations. Who benefits from this plunder? It is a multi-billion dollar business. That question. And who suffers the water crisis? Adults can survive this, but children cannot. I cannot accept it. This is our planet. Overexploitation, climate change, pollution. There are solutions to the water crisis. When I think especially of the rivers of Southern Europe, I get scared. [Music] People are unaware that water scarcity and food go hand in hand. We have to see it as a system. Water and food are cycles. We have to repair them. [Music] The Nile made possible one of the world's first civilizations in Egypt. Today the country is a military dictatorship and water is a political issue. Nada Arafat is one of the last independent journalists in the country. She works for the editorial team of Madam Maser, whose website is blocked in Egypt. It is currently almost impossible to work as a journalist in Egypt, especially if you do real journalism. Personally, I am going through difficulties because I work for the Madam Master editorial team. North of Cairo lies the Nile Delta. More than half of Egyptians live there, many from [Music] agriculture. The Nile Delta is crisscrossed by an extensive system of canals, some large, others smaller. [Music] Farmers have been irrigating their fields here for 5,000 years. In the past, the Nile floods were utilized. Currently, diesel pumps facilitate the work, but flood irrigation requires a lot of water. On average, globally we use drinking water as follows. Around 10% is used in private households for showering, washing, drinking. Around 20% is used in industry, and 70% is used in agriculture. Therefore, it is the main culprit for the global water crisis. To tackle this water crisis, the Egyptian government is also relying on new technologies. To lose less water during its transport to the fields, it has concreted canals on a large [Music] scale. The government implemented this project without sufficient studies. It wanted to transport water through the canals without losses. During my research, I found many negative effects. The soil is no longer washed, so its salinity increases. Furthermore, the groundwater level drops because the water can no longer penetrate the soil. The Egyptian government did not want to answer our questions regarding this. [Music] Egypt is the fifth largest exporter of potatoes. [Music] Less groundwater and higher salinity could harm agriculture in the long term. Farmer Mohamed el Gogari depends on the Nile continuing to transport enough water. Due to the climate, it is possible to harvest several times a year, but this also requires a lot of water. [Music] Of course, I am worried. We are an agricultural country. Every day we hear about water problems, droughts, and water crises in other countries. We are suffering from irrigation problems and a decrease in rainfall. All of this should worry us greatly. Despite all the threats, agriculture continues its march. [Music] and one harvest after another is produced. In the Egyptian winter, potatoes are sown for export to Europe in spring. In winter, strawberries are harvested for the foreign market. We export these, but not these, although they all taste good. What matters most to Europeans is the appearance of the strawberries. The taste is secondary. They want the strawberries to look like this. This is how they receive them in Europe. We sell these in [Music] Egypt. Egyptian strawberry exports have multiplied by almost 100 in the last 20 years, reaching about 150,000 tons [Music] currently. The European market is crucial for me because the prices are higher. We export about 60 to 70% of the strawberries. Our growth depends on foreign markets. Last year I planted 30 hectares, this year 60 hectares. Without new markets, there is no growth, but increased exports exacerbate the water crisis in Egypt, and this farm is one of the smallest. Large agricultural operations require a lot of water and cultivate a lot. They use the water that should actually be available to farmers in the Nile Delta to grow, for example, food like wheat. We are practically exporting water. When food is exported, the water used to grow it is also exported. This is called the water footprint. To grow 1 kg of strawberries. About 300 L of water are needed. 1 kg of potatoes requires 120 L, but this only applies to potatoes from Germany. Due to the climate, potatoes imported from Egypt need up to 420 L of water per kilogram. The most important thing is how it is irrigated. In Central Europe, rainwater is mostly used. In Egypt, however, irrigation is almost exclusively artificial. [Music] Many important agricultural regions of the world are located in regions particularly affected by water stress. The Colorado River in the United States is one of the main scenarios of the global water crisis. Lake Mead, dammed by the Hoover Dam, had only about a quarter of its maximum capacity in the summer of 2022. The Colorado originates in the Rocky Mountains and supplies water to seven US states. The largest consumer is California. Cities with millions of inhabitants like Los Angeles and San Diego depend on its water, but most of it ends up in this agricultural region in the middle of the desert. [Music] The All-American Canal transports a total of 80% of the water that California takes from the Colorado River to the Imperial Valley along the border with [Music] Mexico. Trevorag is the second generation of farmers here. That is the border. This is the All-American Canal. Like all farmers here, TAC depends entirely on the water from the Colorado. See here. Okay. The All-American Canal basically ends here. It continues for only half a mile more. This is also the end of the Colorado and our water supply. From here, the water flows to the Salton Sea and irrigates about 170,000 hectares. That's pretty cool. Until the early 20th century, the Imperial Valley was an uninhabited desert. Currently, it is one of the most important producing regions in the United States thanks to the water from the [Music] Colorado. The most important crop is alfalfa for [Music] livestock feed. At this time of year, we are looking for a certain color. We want Eleno to have a very bright green color because this harvest goes directly to the feed stores. That's why we try to make it look as good as Mother Nature allows us. You must stay here. [Music] Trevor still irrigates as they did in ancient Egypt, using flood irrigation. We open a series of sluice gates, and then the water flows for a certain time. Then we close it and move on to the next one. It's a simple gravity-based irrigation system, as it uses the slope of the land without electricity or fuel, just gravity and timing. Very interesting and very simple. But this form of irrigation requires a lot of water, as with temperatures above 40 degrees in summer, a large part evaporates. [Music] The United States is the world's leading producer of alfalfa. About half of the alfalfa traded worldwide comes from here. Thanks to the climate of Southern California, it is possible to harvest up to 12 times a [Music] year. The alfalfa produced in the southwestern United States is used in food production worldwide. We supply the meat and dairy industry, which is essentially the backbone of that supply. California is the largest producer of beef and dairy products in the United States. On this farm alone, in the Imperial Valley, there are about 140,000 head of cattle. Almost half of California's water is allocated to the dairy and meat industries, mainly due to the water-intensive alfalfa. [Music] The question is, how can we use water better? I don't want to get too political, as I am obviously a farmer and would be biased. I think the best use is in agriculture because we share our harvest with everyone in society, but this will remain an important discussion in the future. Since water has become scarce, municipalities, industry, and farmers have been arguing about who should save water and how much. But so far, there is one topic that has received little attention: food. Jennifer Stoikovic wants to change that. Nothing more American, right? I think there is a willful ignorance. People don't want to accept that there is a direct relationship between extreme temperatures, water scarcity, and our food. Animal products require a large amount of water. To produce 1 liter of milk, up to 1,000 L are needed. For 1 kg of cheese, 5,000 L. And for 1 kg of beef, up to 15,000 L of water. It is particularly dramatic when cattle are only fed instead of grazing, as forages like alfalfa, soy, and corn are often artificially irrigated, and this requires large amounts of water. [Music] We have to realize how we have industrialized our livestock farming. It requires a lot of energy, a lot of feed, and a lot of water to keep the animals. Since the cattle do not graze, we have to feed them alfalfa, and that is why alfalfa production has skyrocketed. We should ban the cultivation of alfalfa in desert states with water shortages. Desert and water shortage [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] states. Farmers like Trevor Tag feel unfairly accused. Well, there is no more or less water than in the time of the dinosaurs. Maybe we have a drought, maybe not. I just notice that the climate is becoming more cyclical. Remember that my whole world revolves around the earth, the sun, water, and some seeds. So when it comes to who is the real environmentalist, I am more so than anyone who claims to be. In simple terms, the water cycle works like this. Rivers flow into the sea, water evaporates, it rains, and then it refills rivers, lakes, and groundwater. This is how water cycles have been established worldwide for millions of years. [Music] The climate crisis is altering them. Glaciers are melting, water evaporates faster, clouds store more water, and then it rains torrentially. The result: floods. Instead of full groundwater reservoirs. In India, two-thirds of rivers depend on glaciers and Himalayan precipitation. By the end of the century, 80% of these glaciers could have disappeared, and India is already currently the country most affected by water scarcity. The Indian desert region of Rajasthan is one of the driest in the world. [Music] For thousands of years, people have been building wells and have been able to colonize even these hostile environments. But the situation has worsened in recent years. [Music] When I started 15 years ago, the water level was 150 meters deep, now it is 350 meters and still dropping. Around 18% of the world's population lives in India. However, this country has only 4% of the world's freshwater resources. The climate crisis is further exacerbating this problem. It is getting hotter and drier, and rainfall is becoming increasingly unpredictable. This particularly affects the desert regions of the northeast of the country. Many people here already depend on drinking water supply by tanker trucks. We don't have clean water here, so they have to bring us drinking water. We pay about €10 for 20,000 L. That is enough for two or three months. The groundwater here is salty, and we cannot drink it. The salinization of groundwater is the result of overexploitation by agriculture. [Music] Vandana Shiva, one of the most important critics of industrial agriculture worldwide, lives in northern India. All of this comes from natural seeds. Look how big they get when you care for them. People always believe that big only comes from hybrid seeds, but these are completely natural. And this is flax. Farmers sold them at the market, and women in the city asked, "Oh, do you have the German seeds?" And they replied, "No, this is Indian flax." For her commitment, Vandana Shiva received, among other awards, the [Music] Alternative Nobel Prize. Since I have been involved in agriculture, everything has revolved around water. I have seen wells and rivers dry up because they have been diverted for irrigation. When soils are cultivated industrially, they dry out and become hard as cement. And that is why groundwater levels are dropping everywhere, because we keep taking more out, and nothing comes back. Her positions are not without controversy. Proponents of industrial agriculture argue that it has freed many people from hunger thanks to higher yields. But Vandana Shiva states that humanity can also be fed with organic agriculture and in a way that continues to do the best possible in the future. The water level on our farm has risen by more than 20 meters since we started in 1994. If we cultivate organically, soil organisms ensure living soil, and living soil is a water reservoir. Earthworms create cavities, bacteria break down organic matter, aerate the soil, and create spaces that can retain water. And that is why our groundwater level has risen. [Music] Ancient varieties grow on her land, including an ancient variety of [Music] alfalfa. Species like alfalfa are very healthy for the soil and animals and are part of the natural ecosystem that reduces water consumption and regenerates soils. It is healthy food for the ecosystem and animals. A natural cycle, but only if managed sustainably. In industrial agriculture, this cycle has been destroyed. The most powerful river in Spain flows through the northeast of the country, the Ebro. In the Aragon region, one of the most important producing areas in the country has emerged along its banks. Here, forage plants, corn, and alfalfa are mainly grown. In this semi-desert, almost everything must be irrigated artificially. [Music] Well, well, here we have the reservoir. What is its capacity? With a fairly high level. It's 160,000 cubic meters. And for how many days do you have autonomy? It can be irrigated for two days. Water, well, not transparent from the Pyrenees. Direct water from the Pyrenees. Very little sediment. Yes. [Music] Technician José Marí Cebollero and engineer Ricardo Aliot jointly developed this irrigation system. It is fed with water from the Pyrenees through a canal, water that belongs to the Ebro River basin, but in recent years there have been fewer and fewer rains. Well, the drought, for example, in a year like this, we now have 40% fewer summer crops than in a normal year, where we have no restrictions. It's a matter of uncertainty because you don't have this guaranteed. Now we have to wait for the climatic conditions to change and be able to have adequate allocation next year. If not, we could be in the same situation as this year or last year. [Music] [Applause] The special thing about this irrigation system is that it is computer-controlled. It is ultra-modern and designed for efficient water use. Ricardo Aliot also researches water waste through agricultural irrigation. [Applause] Well, the technified systems have the advantage of increasing production, facilitating irrigation, making irrigation more comfortable for irrigators, and making the type of crop more flexible. Regarding water consumption, it is not guaranteed that they will reduce water consumption; they maintain it and sometimes increase it. It is that the increase in efficiency usually reduces use but increases water consumption. We must not confuse use with consumption. In reality, more efficient irrigation methods tend to increase the cultivated area and ultimately lead to greater water consumption. Well, the alfalfa, after this last cut, will take about 3 days for the machine to enter. Yes, I imagine they will look for large clients with packages, in most cases the production goes to China and to the Arab countries at this [Music] moment. Spain is the largest European producer of alfalfa. [Music] And despite the water crisis, the industry expects continuous growth. [Music] In this plant, alfalfa and other forage plants are dried and processed. [Music] The representative of Spanish alfalfa producers, Luis Machín, is dissatisfied despite growth forecasts. Hm. The situation is that, well, we see that there is less and less water, we have more and more problems to get water, and well, we see it with concern, we see it with concern, and well, the years go by, and it seems that there is no very defined policy around this problem in Spain, right? Because in the end, water is not that we don't use it for irrigation; it's that with that food, with that production, animals are fed, humans eat with that production, and in the end, this is part of the chain, right? Which we use to produce food. But does alfalfa production only suffer from water scarcity, or is it also one of its main causes? In the summer of 2023, the Ebro had its lowest water level in over 100 years. Not even the heavy summer rains changed the situation. They only caused floods and barely filtered into the groundwater. The reservoirs are almost empty. Here we are observing a wetland around the reservoir, which partly corresponds to the rise of water by capillary action in the ground, but also corresponds to the drop in water level due to the extractions being made at this moment. This level would correspond to about 24 hours. These are the demands that are met for irrigation. Basically, when the reservoir is full, the water reaches the top of the tower of this church. [Music] The water crisis is once again bringing to the surface the ruins of the ancient submerged village. [Music] This crisis is also driven by the way we feed ourselves. Crops destined for animal feed that are highly water-demanding, such as corn and alfalfa, which have the highest demands, have spread to an area that exceeds the basin's capacities, leading to a situation of permanent water stress, a situation of scarcity created by excessive demands. Regarding water availability, the low water levels in the Pyrenean and Ebro reservoirs are also related to the excessive demand for forages like corn and alfalfa. More than half of the water used for irrigation is for animal feed. What do the producers say about this? It doesn't have that part. No, no, it eliminates the, it eliminates the, it eliminates that question. I can't tell you anything because I don't know anything about what you've told me. I have no idea. But there are many tributaries from the Pyrenees where this whole area is reaching, where this whole area has reached. No, it's not an exclusive issue of the Ebro, but there is a discussion. No, no, it's not that, it doesn't make sense that question. As a reminder, agriculture consumes a large part of the world's water. Around 30% of water is used solely for the production of animal feed. Spain is the largest producer of alfalfa in Europe and the third largest exporter in the world, so many alfalfa exporters have established themselves in the valley of the largest of them, Aldara, from the United Arab Emirates, who proudly present themselves as world market leaders. Aldara is the world's largest producer of forage for the livestock industry, especially high-quality alfalfa. The company has the capacity to produce 3 million tons of forage per year. Aldara is one of the largest exporters from the port of Barcelona. From there, the company ships alfalfa from the Ebro Valley worldwide. Aldara has become so large that we will encounter it several times in this investigation. Due to water scarcity, there is a global struggle to save water in agriculture. I think the debate about what is more important will continue: food or cities and communities. And it's difficult because after all, all those people also buy food. I am not smart enough to find solutions for good distribution, but I think the people who decided this 100 years ago were very [Music] intelligent. The water from the Colorado is still distributed according to a treaty from 100 years ago. Mexico receives a share of about 10%. That was enough for a long time, but there is less and less [Music] water. The Colorado now dries up before reaching the sea. Saltwater from the sea penetrates the delta, and the soil becomes saline. Animals and plants are threatened, as are the people who have lived here for generations. Leticia Galab is part of the indigenous Cucapá community. Here is what remains of what was an arm of the Colorado River. Well, the main one that carried water to the Cucapá community, the largest of the Colorado River. Well, as you can see, it's dry. She learned to swim in this river. [Music] For me, for all my people, it is very sad to see that the water is gone. Why? Because they sidelined us. Because Las Vegas needs water, because we are not as important as those people. And it's over. And it's over. And we have fought a lot, and we have not been able to achieve [Music] anything. On the banks of another arm of the Colorado, which still has water, is the town of El Mayor. Here still live 250 members of the Cucapá people. They call themselves the people of the river. They were the first to settle on the banks of the Colorado. The Cucapá have fewer and fewer places where they can fish. It is a priority for us indigenous Cucapá to fish because that is how we sustain ourselves. It is very important for us that the Colorado River has water, because that is where many families in the community feed themselves, or the entire community in general, that is where we feed ourselves from fishing, and it is an ancestral, ancestral fishing that we have. [Music] Less water also means fewer fish. [Music] with serious consequences for the [Music] Cucapá. They were the original users of the Colorado River. It was theirs. And we all came to produce agriculture commercially, and they left, they lost their rights, didn't they? I think this crisis is also an opportunity to incorporate these groups and to rescue all that knowledge they have for managing soil, for managing plants, for managing water. And better use of resources is urgent, as in northern Mexico, agriculture also uses most of the water. Global water consumption has multiplied almost sixfold since the beginning of the century. The reasons are the increase in world population and economic development. Researchers predict that demand will continue to [Music] increase. Added to this is the climate crisis, which particularly affects the lower part of the Colorado. I no longer call it a prolonged drought; we are in a megadrought region. That means we now have more recurrent, more frequent, more prolonged, and more intense droughts. For the Cucapá, the consequences are particularly devastating. You take out the fish. Leticia Galav and her son Carlos prepare fish for sale together. Carlos caught them the night before. The head. 1 kilo, old man. 1 kilo. They still have just enough to survive. But what will happen in the future with Carlos and the other young Cucapá? There is nothing else to do. It's the only thing they know how to do. They didn't study, so they didn't see a future, but they can't do anything else. I ask the government to put water in the Colorado River, to let water reach the Colorado River, that is, to give us water. That's all they ask for, that's all they need. Water is like our blood, meaning if the fishing ends, we end too, meaning we become extinct. It's over. [Music] [Applause] [Music] this. When rivers carry less water, conflicts arise over how that water is distributed. And the course of rivers often causes people in the lower reaches to lose out, as is happening in southern India, on the banks of the [Music] Caveri River. K.M. Rengarayan represents the farmers in the lower reaches of the river. If the state of Karnataka no longer lets water pass to Tamil Nadu, then there is not enough water for irrigation here. That affects us farmers. [Music] Rengarayan lives in Tanjore, in the lower part of the Caveri. This river originates in Karnataka and flows through Tamil Nadu. Karnataka can control the amount of water that reaches Tamil Nadu through dams. The conflict between the two states has existed for over 100 years. Time and again, violent clashes also occur. [Music] Agriculture depends on water, and people depend on agriculture. In Tamil Nadu, practically one in two works in the agricultural sector. In Rengarayan's fields, the rice harvest begins today. [Music] When it doesn't rain, we depend entirely on Karnataka letting water pass. This year the harvest is quite good because it rained and Karnataka let water pass. For the past few years, we haven't had water. [Music] We farmers suffer a lot. It is almost impossible to live from agriculture. Rice is one of the most water-demanding crops. To produce 1 kg, at least 3,000 L of water are needed. India is the world's largest exporter of rice, with 40% of the global market. [Music] 60% of the Caveri's water is used for irrigating agricultural crops. I have worked with farmers in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The reason why conflicts have increased is that industrial agriculture requires 10 times more water, and if two groups need 10 times more water, that generates conflicts. When you turn a crop into a commodity, you practice monoculture using only enormous amounts of chemicals and then export it. A toxic and deadly mixture arises. [Music] Hello, Ri. I'm finishing my rounds. Are you okay? On Vandana Shiva's farm, people learn organic farming techniques. One of her most important projects is seed banks. In them, she collects ancient varieties that have been displaced by high-yield varieties. Farmers in this country once cultivated 200,000 varieties of rice. Fortunately, we have preserved 4,000 of them in various seed banks. Many of these varieties require very little water. These are the varieties that allow us to cope with water scarcity and the climate crisis, which ultimately is also a water crisis. Vandana Shiva has created 150 such seed banks and trained 750,000 people in their management. We have to see it as a system. Water and food are cycles. We have to repair them. In doing so, we will discover that every time we heal the planet, we also heal ourselves. And elsewhere in India, rediscovered ancient methods also help in the fight against the water crisis. [Music] [Applause] [Music] During the drought, there wasn't even enough drinking water for people here. We had to go back and forth with the herds. [Music] Now there is more than enough water again. When I was a child, there was water here. Then everything dried up. Since the dam was built, there has been enough water again. This dam is one of over 8,000 built in northern India in recent decades. The so-called johads retain water from seasonal monsoon rains and thus replenish the groundwater level. [Music] The result: where a few years ago there were wastelands, people can practice agriculture again. [Music] Dams like these were built centuries ago until this technique fell into oblivion. This man revived it. Rajendra Singh, also known as India's water man. This is the river basin. Water from the entire mountain flows into the valley and accumulates here in this reservoir. Then it penetrates through these cracks in the soil and replenishes the groundwater. Rajendra Singh received, among other awards, the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize, also known as the Nobel Prize for Water, for his work. [Music] I feel my soul and body revitalized by water. My life is so closely tied to water. When I can go to the water, I feel happy, and as you can see, the cow is also happy. Thanks to the work of Rajendra Singh's organization, seven dry rivers have been restored in the arid [Music] northeast. In a village near the Indian city of Karauli, these women and men are working on the maintenance of a [Music] dam. We have been working here for 15 days. We are poor people who need to earn money. These women receive about €4 a day. They do hard work out of economic necessity. [Music] But people here also benefit in the long [Music] term. We can grow wheat and mustard. The dam provides drinking water for livestock and poultry, and our children can play in the water. [Music] Rajendra Singh's projects have brought water back to over 1,000 villages. [Music] This is not rocket science; it's simple science that works, but it depends on the type of dam, whether it solves or creates problems. This can be observed near the world-famous bay of Mont Saint-Michel. Here the Célune River flows. It used to host a large salmon population, but for several decades now, they have no longer been able to migrate. Swiss biologist Robert Eple founded the so-called European Rivers Network, an initiative to protect European rivers. He has fought for decades for this day. I have a very positive feeling, great emotion, because I know that today is the beginning of the end, so to speak, and that is that the river will be completely free in a few weeks. [Music] For over 100 years, two large dams have prevented the Célune from flowing freely. Until [Music] today. In 2022, water began to be drained from the reservoir. Gradually, toxic sediments were dredged and removed. Only a few hours remain until demolition. [Music] Once that is gone, it will be one of the best moments of my life. This is the second large dam to be removed on the Célune, so we will have a free river landscape as it was 100 years ago, with lots of salmon, lots of life and biodiversity, a real river that can simply flow to the sea. What was not taken into account when the dams were built is the fact that fish and other animals are important for the health of river systems and thus also for maintaining the water cycle intact. [Music] To be forbidden to film on EDF property, we have a great position here. Last year, another dam a few kilometers upstream was already demolished. This is the largest dam dismantling ever carried out in Europe. And it may be just the beginning. France is a pioneer in this story. All these dams have reached the end of their technical or economic lifespan, so they form a major obstacle and create problems. In just a few months, nature will have reclaimed the former reservoir bed. [Music] One of the objectives of the demolition is that salmon and other migratory fish can swim upstream again from the sea to their spawning grounds. We can expect fish in just 4 months. As soon as the work is finished, the fish will be able to swim here again. If they don't like the place, they will keep swimming and can find hundreds of places to spawn further upstream, so we have ideal conditions for a successful natural reintroduction of salmon. The construction of large dams on European rivers often creates the illusion that there is an excess of water. That is true in the short term, but in the long term, one of the results is that rivers lose their capacity to retain water themselves, which happens when rivers overflow and wetlands can soak. Since dams also retain sediments, i.e., sand and stones, they cause another problem. [Music] [Applause] Dams are also responsible for our rivers generally becoming deeper. They literally sink. Some rivers in Europe have sunk up to 6 and 7 meters in recent decades. This means that the entire water level in the area logically also drops. In other words, the soil dries out. Spain is particularly affected by drought. Here entire rivers have disappeared. [Music] Daniel Pequerul grew up in the village of Vinaceite and now fears for its existence. This dry river is precisely called Aguas Vivas. [Music] This is a stony ground, isn't it? It's not a river. Where do we go? Here there are only stones. Anyway, I learned to swim here in this river. Right there. There was a ford, there were pools, there was water, and now there is none of that. [Music] Further upstream in the neighboring village, there are several springs. Here the stream still has water, and that is a cause for conflict. The conflict has always existed. Well, the conflict is that whoever has the water says, "It's mine, they need it because they need it." We only ask that of the flow that there is, a small part, but a part systematically goes from top to bottom, because the river has to carry water. Hello, boss. Daniel Pecure advocates for dialogue. What happens is that it always catches our attention when you pass by here through Letús, to see the river with water because here, winter or summer, whenever, water always flows down. Maybe it's also because we don't exploit water like you do elsewhere. Yes, here we don't have, I don't know, hardly any wells. Down there you have tons of wells. Maybe that's an issue, eh, eh, why you have little water from the exploitation that is all down there. The farms, the term farms, estates, you have many woody farms, meaning olive trees and many other things that you irrigate with well water. So, Tmid of Belchites. Yes, yes. Okay. But then the river, of course, the river flows dry. It flows dry, well, maybe because of the number of wells there. [Music] Where water is lacking, conflicts arise. There is water scarcity because agriculture uses too much. Aragon is the center of the Spanish intensive pig farming industry. Spain is the world's largest exporter of pork, and many pigs need a lot of feed. The expansion of irrigation cannot be irrational, it cannot be unlimited because water is not infinite, and therefore if irrigation expands due to climate change and the need to support certain products with irrigation, let's think that it will not be the definitive solution, because when more than 40% of the basin's water is transpired, the system collapses, as is happening here in Spain in most of the basins. It is not only Spanish river systems that have largely collapsed. Massive overexploitation is spreading throughout the Mediterranean region. In Surat, India, another problem in water management can be observed. In addition to excessive use, pollution also poses a threat to the water we consume. The textile industry is responsible for 20% of global water pollution. [Music] Europe has strictly regulated its industry, but the dirtiest processes are outsourced to countries like India. Surat is India's largest producer of synthetic garments. Many toxic chemicals are used for this. Often these are simply discharged without prior treatment. Textile worker Rayo Manji not only works with these toxic chemicals but also lives next to the [Music] wastewater. The water here is very polluted, sometimes the water is completely bad, and because of that, from 18 to only in their thirties, they weaken and get sick. We have fever and headaches, and we can no longer concentrate on work. We sleep most of the time and can no longer work. We simply don't have the strength left. More than half of India's 14 million inhabitants live without access to adequate sanitation facilities. [Music] San Pat moved to Surat with her family just a few months ago because her husband found work in a textile factory. They live in a poor neighborhood right next to a canal. That water is wastewater, it stinks, and it causes diseases. If these diseases spread, people will surely die. This family has one daughter and three sons. I have been sick for two months. Sometimes I get better, and then I get sick again. We adults can survive this, but children cannot. [Music] Approximately half of India's rivers are heavily polluted. MSH Shake and his environmental organization fight for better water quality in Surat. [Music] They regularly take water samples, which they send to the [Music] laboratory. The water stinks due to high levels of sulfates and nitrates. This bottle gives off an acrid odor due to ammonium nitrate. The water is too contaminated to simply be discharged into the environment and the sea. Things cannot continue like this. We must follow the concepts of reuse, recycle, and recover water in every possible way as policy. Factories should treat and recycle water. This is already happening in some places in Surat. This treatment plant treats wastewater from the textile industry so that it can be reused in the factories themselves instead of being discharged untreated into the sewer. Bharat Ban is its director. Only textile companies are coming to this industrial park to use our treatment plant, and another 400 or 500 factories are already planning to move here. The relocation of 500 textile factories would be a first step, but in all of Surat, there are 50,000 such factories. Still, Bushan is proud of his plant's results. The recycled water cannot be drunk. Factories use it for their industrial processes and are very happy to have this recycled water because it has a much higher quality than the groundwater they get from wells. Poor people have no other option but to drink well water. Those who can afford it install water filters. If you want to drink groundwater safely, you must filter it. Recycled water for industrial use thus appears to be cleaner than the groundwater that the poorest have to drink. I find this disgusting. As a human being, as a citizen, I cannot accept it. This is our planet, our environment. Water pollution is not just a problem in India. The situation is dramatic worldwide. In addition to industry, pesticides and fertilizers from agriculture, in particular, contaminate surface and [Music] groundwater. This also has consequences for the drinking water supply. Siumar drives a tanker truck through the narrow streets of the metropolis of Chennai in southern India. He moves the scooter aside. If Vacumar drives one of the estimated 10,000 tanker trucks in Chennai. [Music] In this metropolis of 12 million
of inhabitants, the majority of people depend on drinking water from these trucks. I feel very proud. I have been supplying water to people for a year and a half. I am very happy to drive this tanker truck. [Music] We use the water for cooking. The tap water is contaminated with sewage. That's why we use this water. While Ibacumar continues his rounds with the tanker truck, Madurige G prepares to make dinner. She lives in this house with her husband, daughter, and granddaughter. When the tanker truck passes us by, we have to buy bottled water. We cannot use tap water for cooking because it is too salty. If it weren't for the truck, water would be very expensive for her. A canister from the truck costs about a cent. Bottled water costs 30 times more. Only 2% of the Indian population gets drinking water from the tap. Around 160 million Indians have no access to drinking water at all. Environmentalist Betri Selvan has been criticizing how water is managed here for years. He states that Chennai has grown too [Music] fast. This is our fault. Chennai is 30% overpopulated, and each resident needs 250 liters of water per day. Where can we get it from? Chennai is one of India's most important centers for the software industry. Nature and the poorest residents pay for this [Music] boom. We have completely overused water. We have been building non-stop for years, but we have failed in water management. We have completely forgotten our traditional knowledge of sustainable water use. [Music] India is the most populous country in the world. More than 50 of its cities have over a million inhabitants. Without better water management, there is a risk of disaster. The Egyptian Sahara is one of the most inhospitable places on [Music] planet, but people have also lived here for thousands of years and need to eat. [Music] One of their main food sources is [Music] dates. Ibrahimán belongs to the fourth generation that [Music] cultivates them. Dates need little water. The only problem is that the plantations need flood irrigation. However, they generally need less water than other crops. The water in the Egyptian oases comes from a gigantic underground water reservoir, the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System. This is so-called fossil water, which has been there for millions of years and currently has no natural tributaries. About a quarter of the world's freshwater is [Music] fossil water. The problem is that when it runs out, there is no more. Our water has also become scarce. When it naturally gushed from the ground, water consumption was not so high. Since agricultural production expanded, it has become scarce. [Music] That's why, together with German social entrepreneur Tina Yaskolski, Ibrahim Hassan is looking for ways to make better use of available water. One of the alternatives is water-saving drip irrigation. This greenhouse is made very simply so that it can be easily copied. We have a fish pond and grow vegetables, and we use the pond water for irrigation. In addition, the nutrient-rich pond water fertilizes the plants. We can run two or three greenhouses with the same amount of water we used to flood the fields with. This allows us to produce our own food instead of bringing it from Cairo. At first, people were very skeptical, but that has changed. People saw that raising fish is simple, it only requires ponds and water tanks. Now we raise fish and consume them. We are very happy with [Music] [Laughter] that. On his own farm, Ibrahim Hassan also relies on modern technology; with these solar panels, he powers his pump. But the water level in his well drops by 1 to 2 meters each year. At first, the water simply came from wells. Then we switched to diesel pumps, but the water continued to decrease until we could switch to solar energy, which brought us more advantages. Every time water becomes scarce, we have new ideas. However, we don't know what will come after solar energy. Geographer Tina Yaskolski has been researching and working in the oases of the Egyptian desert for over 15 years. The problem is that there are more and more wells, and many are drilled haphazardly anywhere. Many wells are too close to each other, so they steal water from each other. There is a lot of water in the Nubian sandstone aquifer, but a lot is also extracted until drilling that deep is no longer profitable. For people like Ibrahim Hassan, it may soon become increasingly expensive and difficult to access the water they desperately need. Later, we will see who is the biggest water exploiter in the Egyptian desert. Believing in inexhaustible water sources. creates problems all over the world. Due to the supposed excess water of the Colorado, a gigantic agricultural industry emerged in the southwestern United States, also for animal feed. We have become one of the main production points in the global food supply chain because we learned to grow alfalfa as efficiently as possible. We were blessed with this region that has the right conditions for it, the river, the valley, and its climate. And then, suddenly, the world population began to grow rapidly, and now countries all over the world buy our alfalfa. It is the basis of global food. In the meantime, foreign companies no longer just buy alfalfa, but also cultivate it themselves in the southwestern United States. One of the most important is the company Fondomonte, owned by the Saudi royal family. Gerald Mena. who works for an agency that supplies drinking water to Palm Springs, is concerned. It is a really enormous exploitation. This is no longer agriculture, this is agribusiness. In recent years, there has been increasing discussion about how to use the increasingly scarce Colorado water. Should communities or farmers save more? And who pays the price for the massive export of water-intensive products like Alfalfa? This is my water bill. I pay $3 for 50 cubic meters. For 73 cents, producers get almost 4000 cubic meters of water. This huge price difference is to blame for our misery, because it allows these companies to make huge profits while our own citizens do not have what they need. In the United States, 46 million people do not have access to tap drinking water. When I think about Americans who don't have water just so it can be exported as fodder to feed cows on the other side of the planet, I wonder if anyone is thinking about the future of our country. But resistance is growing. In October 2023, the state of Arizona did not renew the leases of the Saudi company Fondo Monte. I find it very selfish for an American to criticize us for exporting water in the form of alfalfa. If we didn't do it, we would be taking food away from people in Saudi Arabia and China. It's quite audacious criticism. It's not the small farmers who make money from alfalfa. It's giant agricultural companies. And there is a reason why Saudi Arabia, which has a desert climate similar to ours, has banned alfalfa production. Exports are booming, especially to Japan and China. In 2022, the United States exported about 2.8 million tons of alfalfa. The largest exporter is a company we have already met, Aldara, from the United Arab Emirates. Despite multiple requests, we did not get an interview, but this will not be the last time we encounter it. In the United States too, there is enormous demand for fodder because no one consumes as much beef as [Music] Americans. With every meal, we have the opportunity to reduce our water footprint. We have long known that our consumption of animal products is one of the biggest drivers of environmental destruction and water scarcity. That's why we have to eat less meat. But the opposite is happening. In industrialized countries, meat consumption remains constantly high, and the rest of the world is catching up. On average, worldwide, each person currently eats 40 kg of meat per year, almost double what they did 60 years ago. In addition, there are almost three times as many people in the world as in 1960. In total, meat production has quintupled. Milk production has also almost tripled in the last 60 years. The world's largest dairy farm is currently located in the Saudi Arabian desert, as the company proudly shows in its promotional videos. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we operate seven Almaray Superfarms, currently among the most modern dairy farms in the world. The fodder for these cows comes from all over the world: the United States, Spain, and Egypt. Egyptian journalist Nada Arafat is investigating the consequences. To do this, she travels to the desert. On the roads, you can see how water is being taken from [Music] Egypt. They are probably transporting alfalfa. Most of it is for export. In Egypt, investigating the agricultural industry is [Music] dangerous. It is forbidden to photograph or film military installations. However, since the military claims all undeveloped land in the country, this means that any field we want to photograph could belong to the army. This could cause us real legal problems, so the work is dangerous. Although photographs of the installations cannot be taken, they have become so large in the meantime that they can be seen from space. The amount of agricultural land next to military installations has increased enormously in recent years. These projects are emerging all over the country, in areas sometimes twice as large as the Egyptian capital, [Music] Cairo. This farmland does not belong to the army. [Music] The problem is foreign companies, especially those from Arab countries. They buy large tracts of land and only grow alfalfa. Then they export it to their countries where alfalfa cultivation is prohibited due to its high water consumption. They are stealing water from future generations. When water is scarce, the basis of livelihood is destroyed. The export of alfalfa from Egypt has increased significantly in recent years. How can this be explained? We managed to meet someone willing to talk about the army's role in water resource exploitation. As this could endanger his life. We recreated the conversation. The Egyptian army leases large agricultural areas to foreign companies. It is a multi-billion dollar business. I know of a case where the army forcibly expropriated 14,000 hectares of land. The farmers lost everything. If they had resisted, they would have ended up in prison. The source is reliable, and what he says is consistent with other reports on the army's role in agriculture. [Applause] Furthermore, satellite images show that large agricultural areas have emerged near military installations. For the Egyptian government, water is worthless. They are endangering the future of Egyptians. I fear that in 20 years many Egyptians will starve. European consumers should know that they are part of the problem. After being consulted, the Egyptian military government declined to comment. The world's largest alfalfa exporter, the Emirati Aldara, also produces in Egypt, as it proudly shows in its advertising videos, specializing in large-scale land reclamation and cultivation projects, such as this unique project in the Egyptian Toshka desert, which covers 40,000 hectares and has 200 irrigation systems. [Music] Nada Arafat investigated this project. In total, approximately one-tenth of the Nile's water in Egypt is reserved for the Toska project. Aldara and a Saudi company own a large part of the agricultural land there. It makes no sense for us to import food like wheat, while at the same time other countries come here and use our water to grow alfalfa which they then export to feed their animals. That is not fair. [Music] They take our most important product, water, and export it for a lot of money. This misconduct is rarely punished. I am concerned about Egypt because there is no good water management here. [Music] Egypt's population is growing. Without sustainable use of the scarce resource of water, there could be a risk of famine. In Europe, the situation is not yet as serious as in Egypt, but here too, more sustainable water use is necessary. One year after the demolition of a dam on the Celune River, we meet Roberto [Music] Eple again. Freedom. That thing is gone. It's incredible. Pure nature again. That's how fast and powerful nature is. Two dams were demolished here. Nothing prevents the Celune from flowing anymore. Roberto Eple has an appointment with Lorazo Azón, who is researching for the French state how the environment is recovering. Hello, good morning. Researchers are trying to find out if migratory species like salmon or eels can return to their spawning grounds upstream. I hope we can finally see the first salmon fry here that have been able to reproduce naturally. That would mean that the balance has been restored and that the biodiversity of the river and its migratory fish have stabilized again. In the first section, researchers found no migratory fish, only a crayfish. Currently, 100 dams, both large and small, are dismantled in France every year. A great success for river protectors. And the researchers today have also achieved their first success. Look at this. Oh, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. S. All the migration without the dam. [Music] The chip implanted in the eel is used to better investigate the evolution of its population. [Music] The previous week, researchers also caught a salmon in their nets. This is very good news for the [Music] river. For me, it is very rewarding because the work has not been in vain, but also because we have helped life to return. It is still only a beginning, but with migratory fish, natural balance could also return to the Célune. And this balance benefits not only nature but also people. We can increase the resilience of these rivers really quickly, in fact, and thus we can increase the chances that the rivers will remain healthy and, ultimately, continue to provide us with water. All over the world, rivers and other freshwater sources are in danger, but with the right measures, their balance can be restored and ensured, and with this, our survival on this planet can also be guaranteed. [Music]