i thought in our friend that if that's the company. it's time to take one step further and face the it's. time to snatch the young up fight for the troops. to overcome boundaries and connect the world it's time for t.w. . coming up ahead of us.

from. our journey begins in the mountains of the island of java. at the foot of the wyoming volcano there is a lick. the cradle of the shootout room river. feet. above the our geographer at a university in the region knows this place well. i mean

when you see tucci sonti is the name of the sacred lake at the beginning of the cheeto room. if we walk a little further i'll show you the real source where the bubbles come out of the ground i mean. i think the water here is very pure clean enough to wash your face with. you know being anyway it's more than just home from a night you know i feel at peace here. the water is still so clean legend says it's the water of youth. i don't know that she taught him this is so important for indonesia it's very very important really is that thanks to the dams the river generates enough electricity for the islands of java and bali you know what. are you gonna it's a source of drinking water and used for fish breeding and for agriculture and. well

once 3000000 people live along the banks of the river and another 11000000 live around it and got on that they got. the source of the shit out of an indonesian wonder. the river meanders through the island of java for 300 kilometers and flows into the sea east of jakarta the country's capital. for the 1st kilometers the shit out of them is just a stream. it quickly becomes a river essential for farmers. that the river crosses the island's largest cities but as the kilometers go by we see something completely different. mount. of rubbish the white plastic replaces

the blue water. in indonesia despite strong growth and consumption the waste treatment system is still undeveloped so the river serves as an open rubbish bin and the fisherman are now fishing bottles. and. i don't care if there are no more fish here because the water is too polluted up and they're not. rudy is 23 years old he walks along the sheet of room for 9 hours every day he works for every cycling cooperative. but the one i'm the most with plastic water bottles. they collect more than 50 kilos of them and a. half so you've been. doing 5 and 6 euros. for 6 years rudy has been plunging his hands into the horrors of the river. past

but about the worst is the smell from the dead animals but i'm used to. under this mangrove forest trapped in the roots thousands of pieces of debris have accumulated a little more each day and a large amount is not collected indonesian rivers dumped 200000 tonnes of plastic into the sea each year. plastic. visible pollution. shocking. but not the most dangerous. the ship to rome and its inhabitants suffer mainly from chemical pollution.

to understand what's happening we go to one of the many villages along the river and it's textile factories. nur has always lived here. every morning this 42 year old woman goes to the well which is fed by the shit a room. that is so i used the water from the river to do the dishes washed clothes and he. sees how you would i'm. glad of the chalet and to wash vegetable and. i have another man i have the color changes sometimes it's black sometimes it's red . this morning the ocean is playing and so on taking the opportunity to watch the vegetables in any case we have no choice there are no other sources of force us to

see how you. feel when you knew our lives right by the well at the heart of this district where 3000 people live a quarter of the inhabitants are under 15 years old they are the most fragile the ones who seem to suffer the most from pollution like nurse to children. for whom god these are my own just feels nauseous. as you go up and down last time the doctor said he had a liver problem by the good he also has a headache and he can take his. new or has a doctor's appointment. at the clinic is half an hour away by car and.

they do this twice a month. uda her eldest son falls ill as soon as he finishes his medication. how long has he been sick. for about 3 days. and what symptoms does he have. to his chest when he calls you yesterday he felt sick and he vomited as soon as he tried to wait a lot of people my neighbors have the same problems because we shout with the ripple and the river is extremely just the m b i and every alley. yes we also see many cases of diarrhea especially in children it may be related to the contaminated water they drink. but as for the skin diseases we see young it's hard to prove scientifically. and let that over the last. it's impossible to draw definitive conclusions

there is no epidemiological study and no proof of the impact of pollution of the shit on the local population. one man is fighting to change that. denny and this one dani he runs the only environmentalists o.c.a. in the region. for 17 years he has been surveying the chateaux room in search of evidence of pollution by the textile industry. who. doesn't end up they're going to go put on the bill in this region and there are $500.00 textile manufacturers located along that she tore him and they

pour their. sewage directly into the river on average each of these plants disposes of 1300 liters of waste water per day i'm going some more under them among that a bit has different colors depending on the dyes they use what market they are supplying and the type of clothing they have to make supply and by what i do. i mean here's the discharge from several factories. you can see that and today it's dark red i mean. that i mean it's hot they're not very hot. this is why they call that she tar on the most polluted river in the world. someone oh yeah it makes me want to cry. it's so sad to see that she tore him in this state

an upper chamber one that's going to see my river so dirty i'm going to look at the 4th floor. who are these companies emptying their waste water into the should. we retrieve a list of textile factories along the river here they are on this map. here we can see all the textile factories on the banks of the tar him we've compiled data from the ministry of commerce to provide a clearer picture 75 percent of their production is destined for export mainly to the american and european markets. one of the largest exporter is in the country is the just ex group.

getting access is difficult but the company agrees to let us in 4500 people work here. just x. produces mainly polyester fabric a synthetic material that requires a lot of chemicals. the group works mainly with large clothing stores. in these buildings 1000 machines operate 24 hours a day 7 days a week. the factory produces nearly 3000000 meters of fabric a month for the whole world. each of these machines processes the wires with water filled with chemicals.

the waste water then flows to the settling tanks. so on is out away but the 5th month. or i thought that. the size is. 50 they made their way it and handed me peddling and ended up is i don't think smith that it will become a permit to want to do is likely. to be. other than it's really. not every day. only 5 daily parameters while international standards provide at least 31. the body. yes. i don't think so. but it's not coming home for most people. still need to be feel that it's on the day

but i mean it's ok. you can pass my thought to me piece of fun for all is what that said i think i put in if i don't get them good. we are not really convinced by the each you can test it we have a look on the pulse. but the ball is going down. the door of a. maybe. they also must get on then we don't want to get the study up. we want to know what the waste water of this sub contractor of the global textile industry really contains. to find out we have to follow this discreet white pipeline on the left which dumps the plants waste in the shit out of the overflow channel is hidden under the foliage at the edge of the site. this area is

off limits and to access it you have to cross the river from the other side one can just that there's another one right there a discharge outlet from the just tanks factory. we are approaching the water pipe. from 30 metres the water is already covered with a film of white foam. more. this is what just x. did not want to show us. we are on the company's property without authorization so we must be quick. we take 2 leaders to analyze.

the whole. ball. as we go down the shitter room the smoke from another factory catches our attention . lensing the world leader in artificial fiber. the company's supplies. majority of major clothing brands. again huge 70 tanks. one of the villagers shows us where to find their overflow channel. and then on the banks of the ship the room. is here and there are no we are.

what a stench of the awful. the smell is suffocating. it is here 300 meters from the factory that lensing pours its waste out of sight and close to fields and houses. the yellow and black flow of waste that ends in the river. this time we have more time so we directly test the water with our apparatus. an analysis kit for different pollutants that was recommended by a scientist. can you hear me professor. loud and clear professor legroom is a chemist who specializes in water analysis. even what you're the 1st analysis be the student chromium because crewmates are often used in the textile industry 60.

that's why i suggested it to you as an indicator. chlorides can be an indicator of pollution. arsenic nitrates ammonium. the 10 milligrams of phosphate per liter on body difference that's. the results only give us a rough assessment of the pollution. for a more accurate reading i'm going to take some water samples for a laboratory to analyze later. the rice fields are only a few meters away. this is the main crop along the shit out of. this is where congo.

look how rotten everything is. so what's wrong with the rice plants i did lima the contaminated water causes the roots of my rice to rot and then the end sex attack them look at the end sex you know there are lots of specially a fits the bill because it can use of plots are literally surrounded by textile factories. the water that irrigates his rice field is purple and frothing. what pollutants are hiding in this rice. i want to test is the rightful i don't know never.

we take our samples of rice and water to the institute of ecology of project on university. thank you means you're going to be ok that's going to be funny. all right professor sonority runs the only environmental studies laboratory in the region we can measure that then the middle 3 mostly didn't it is space is sure to like a sunny day again then medically also cadmium lead the effect of i mean that's what somebody can. and even then. men predict if the woman for that to could do something like that you know of addiction is ok thank you but i'm not going to yeah i'm going to get you know i continued think you're getting into so you think you can get. close to the

factories while we wait for the test results we get some of the women and children of the village together. thank you because we offer to analyze they're here to better understand which pollutants they are exposed to. a delicate protocol. to advise us we put bryce up in the cellar on the line. more can you hear me professor. yes he is the person to speak to when europe when it comes to researching pollutants with hair samples he is head of the human bio monitoring unit at the luxembourg health institute. what's the point of hair analysis compared to blood or urine tests. blood or urine tests that gives us information about the few hours before the sampling with air it's different. the speed of growth is around one centimeter per month and it's easy to get samples more than one centimeter long so we have information covering

a period of several months and that makes the sample really representative of the individual's chronic exposure. what's found in the hair has passed through the body and through the blood system. is going to children have a metabolism that is still maturing and this is precisely why they are especially vulnerable to any kind of endocrine disruptors. degrade. in total we take the hair of 10 children from the same neighborhood age from 12 months to 14 years. if. we send them straight to professor up in zeller in luxembourg. as we are leaving the village we receive a phone call from the environmental activists we met on our raft trip.

i'm in high mass and i think she should come and see the pen as she discharged outlets. there discarding their waste in the middle of the night one of our contacts is on site. the factory is located right on the edge of the she told them. to participate. in. the pan asia group as one of the largest indonesian sub contractors in the textile industry. we filed a complaint to pan asia. because when the water rises it reaches our fields and it makes our skin start to itch. i don't know what. the water is dirty the smell is unbearable or. the. phones how do you. think you want to live in snow. for going to the villager i

talked to told me to put on a mask if i go closer to the water big. because it's true that even from here we can smell it. and it's pretty strong. thank you. it's really hot and the smell is unbearable. and you don't check out the color of the water. look. ok. and if i'm out of here. ok. and you're so much thinking. this time we are not able to give this sample to dr sonorities laboratory in

indonesia he will not have time to analyze it we have to send them to another laboratory and friends that specializes in environmental studies. in the meantime we find the indonesian biologist dr sonority he has just finished analyzing the 1st 2 samples of water and rice that we had given to him he asked us to take him to the rice field where we took the samples because he wants to be clear he can hardly believe what he has found in the rice. one thing. from chromium. by the plants. it's very high 20. 804 milligrams but it will be found at. a lead. once and it isn't on the idea plans as much. on the

limits. 29.03 made me good i'm particularly good i'm quite a standout only 0.0 ended by it's only been one of the times this year we're going to increase this is a little. and we need body especially because he's going to lead this but he didn't get us this lead. and therefore system would send it all off and it could all systems so. if the children exposed to lead then and they didn't have the like intellectual disability and i mean if this. was in fact net i believe dead the men. from the. textile industries. the government would have very strict then invest over not come in and.

but you know if there is no standards for many of us then we sacrifice the people in. this rice that grows along the she told him is sold throughout indonesia it is contaminated with lead $116.00 times above the indonesian consumption standard it reaches such a high level because heavy metals accumulate in the rice fields this lead pollution seems to agree with dr sonorities other results testing wastewater from textile factories in just decks overflow channel water the level of lead is 1.5 times the international tolerated limits for industrial waste water for the waste water of the lensing company it's worse the lead level is $3.00 times higher but that's not all another parameter attracts our attention sulphate lensing releases $7087.00 milligrams per liter almost 10 times the global recommendations high

levels of sulfate in water can lead to diarrhea especially in children this is one of the main causes. infant mortality in the country in indonesia $147000.00 children die each year before the age of 5. finally we received the results from the french laboratory for the pan asia factory where we took the water samples at night we read these at denny aris one danis house the activist of the association for the defense of the environment where. it was to put together we contact the french chemist who was interpretating the pan asia water analysis professor bad the good. scientist who specializes in water pollution. what do you say to the results of. all of the water that you have analyzed is practically sewer water urban waste

water. given the bacteriology and taking into account the chemical oxygen demand plus we have a bit of tribunal phosphate not a product i see very often. it's a solvent. and then we also have a few that exceed the limits set out by the european union quality standards there are not all females to the concentrations of 17 micrograms per liter. that's high right. that's above the environmental standards in force in europe. and not all females are products that are ending disruptors. not all females are aren't due to regular human activity you know these are chemicals used in the textile industry. have you seen similar levels of not all

females before in your career. never. can the water be used in farming no no it shouldn't be used for your occasions. how about washing for washing food. no it's really too septic each the water is one fouled so what should we do we don't have a choice we're dependent on this water. the dinny lives here and asks what they can do to use the water anyway because they don't have a choice. at least boil it and react such unaided re area that is a cools down and you need to decant it because it will have particles suspended in it so at least boil it. my main advice is to not drink it. through the reality i'm sad for myself and the residents along the thomas. because the victims of this pollution don't know anything about the degree of danger they are exposed to and for. serious goodness good.

thanks. this will help us prove that the textile industry is contaminating the water and what impact that has on humans and the ecosystem until now we didn't know exactly what pollutants there were in the water. that you saw. what major clothing brands do the polluting factories we have spotted supply to. we sift through dozens of clothes. then their labels to know which ones work in indonesia. and she did look at best made in indonesia. just what about h. and m. made in indonesia. made in indonesia then is. we then

get the lists of indonesian sub contractors from these big brands the factories from which we have taken the waste water appear on the lists. it's been as you say yeah but. the company is registered as one of h. and m's sub contractors pan asia also works with other brands like unique low. it was in the pan asia group's water that we found high levels of nano phenyl a powerful hormone disruptor. the just x. plant and its waste with high lead levels is also sub contracted by the unique low brand. and lens ing the plant with record sulphate levels in its waste water supplies raw materials to companies like gap a sauce marks and spencer and once again unique low and h. and m. . the swedish giant h. and m.

has an office in jakarta the indonesian capital. they are here on the 21st floor we have already tried to contact them by email but without success. incredibly. the director of h. and m. indonesia agrees to see us you got to go to the your original if you count. from then we film with our mobile phone. and i understand a question is not being invited to think yeah yeah so we made some promises. what we found was. well yeah it was a little interesting specially that on its. own version the nation from this is that it will want you does that surprise you is it something you've seen before is no i cannot ask the questions today at this museum but i will go back and look at

every point and talk just on so that you get to be 5 but read this you read it and says no no no yes yes. 3 weeks after this interview h. and m. writes to us. we are sincerely concerned by the subject of your report. each of them has the size scale and ambition to lead the change towards a truly sustainable fashion industry. the production of raw materials like those from the south pacific plants in len's concerns the entire textile industry. this is an important challenge that we will see with the entire industry will continue to choose the best possible alternatives regarding the body factory we have carried out independent audit the last 2017.

despite numerous requests this h. and m. supplier never authorized us to test its waste water again. the japanese brand unique low also implicated responds. we had access to did not take into account the presence of lead in sulfate in the industrial waste water thank you for pointing out the unacceptable levels of these parameters near the just sticks plant. in the case of the pan asia plant after your investigation we consulted reports that show levels of. that are below your results. however we commissioned independent experts to investigate in greater depth onsite. we could have given many more examples 252 clothing brands work with indonesian sub contractors who dump waste water into the room. the big fashion

groups here are all gathered in the same association. the textile industry lobby in indonesia. a key sector with a 10000000000. and euro turnover. this me is their representative. do you think is sort of this is this comes from beijing for this is one of you remember we do this whether you use it for you or geisha if i only forget it i use that. even if you sold all the potence. we're not just 'd said for your country we were looking for the environment when you see that we're going to lose him. when you talk a little bit in them and then got the order and the both of those simple. so the greens are the real power yes. at the end it's still money and clothes. and then in this. house as

a father what does that make you feel just today children living around factories something like this for the hell so many of all this and i think maybe the next 50 years we have now all. these x. men you know. and that's. maybe 50 who think you know we have no. half smile. the spokesman of the textile lobby recognizes the impact of the industry on the health of the residents of the she taught room and the curtain falls. before reaching his sinister predictions could the indonesian government not take steps to avoid this chemical contamination of the 300 you're welcome to follow us thank you for thinking from time thinking at the ministry of environment the person in charge of pollution control agrees to meet us he reads our analyses

a little surprised. by the federal. system. they say this is good information 'd. i think. what the police and. and. this number we're going to. be facing. and we'll also move the. line for textile industry in the world if i stood up on that service lot of new form of p.v. to. include. 'd something like. good news for residents of the she took. good news which is quickly overshadowed by

the latest results of our investigation the hair analysis. professor up and seller sends us the report from the luxembourg health institute. on average the hair samples from the indonesian children contain more than 54 different pollutants . it's 54 pollutants in these children's hair is that a number that you often see or is it unusually high enough. shifty 4 out of 140 we can scan for is pretty high if we look for more molecules we would definitely have found more pollutants in the samples we were analyzing. so in a sense it's just the tip of the iceberg. we give these results to the mothers of the children we took samples from like noor and uda. and if the children fall ill again these tests might help specialists to better

diagnose them. in total we take hair from $45.00 children living there textile factories for the 1st time professor up and seller will include indonesia in his new scientific study. at the end of this trip there is a glimmer of hope. what if it were possible to produce clothing along the sheets of room while respecting the environment and the health of the residents this is the challenge taken on by this large textile factory it is the only one in the country to have received an international eco label with very high standards from the outside the waste water goes up and down the settling tanks and also for filtering and re oxygenation. the solid materials are even separated then

recycled. in total there are 12 treatment stages. and so that is what. they're. thinking what they're. good for and often. this is a long way for them. to see all the. and is that. for years. and i am. not making. this claim. and. they say they don't know yet but i'm. here. and hopefully they can get. the fabrics of this factory are

10 percent more expensive than those of its indonesian competitors. is that the price for the should have room to once again become the most sacred river in the country instead of the most polluted in the world. to meet global demand textile production in indonesia is expected to increase by 75 percent by 2030. 5 major clothing brands can no longer look away. too many victims are paying the heavy price.

sure of. what unites. what divides. cooking the books driving force. what binds the content together. to answers and stories aplenty. spotlight on people. 30 minutes on d w. the right the sound.

of. it decides on who was before whom we spend our money. dukkha a are going to send us a car cars or houses around us determine our. made in germany in 90 minutes on d w. every 2 seconds a person is forced to flee their home. the consequences been dismissed or as our documentary series displaced depicts traumatic humanitarian crises from around the world. focusing we don't think that i think i didn't go to university to kill people and i fully expect that

a lot of people feel for their lives and their future so they seek refuge abroad but what will become a focus to stay behind was. displaced this week on t.w. . this is the daily news these are our top stories the world health organization says the new coronavirus in china is not yet a global health emergency the decision came after chinese authorities moved to knock down 3 cities and cancelled chinese new year events. dozens of the world leaders have paid tribute to victims of the holocaust at jerusalem's yad vashem memorial to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz.