the sun is merciless here rain is scarce. for a long time the northwest indian climate has been hostile to residents. rainfall here comes in a fairly $750.00 millimeters a year only a 3rd of the precipitation of poles in mumbai further to the side of. the situation was once traumatic for the families living here on their fields says 55 year old farmer godfrey he lives with his family in the small village of but kota. our crops used to dry out and our family members were constantly worrying about things like the crops needing water how to irrigate the fields and where to get animal feed is any way. things have been transformed now though partly because of godfrey he is what's known here as a john karr the hindi name means someone who knows all about groundwater 20 b.

j.s as their nickname here live in the surrounding villages. got 3 regularly checks the water levels in the wells and records on the trace of rain. no matter what will go guys yeah i used to feel really strange in front of the other villagers when i 1st started taking the measurements they used to ask me what on earth are you doing. every now and then yogi comes to see how. she works for the marvie project run by a nearby university and who die poor together with australia's western sydney university the project aims to help people find ways of dealing with the constant water shortage here living on location to be jay's are key participants so they have to be trained up to handle their tasks. and they didn't have any class of medication. so it was a new experience for them that. they have

a bunch of. things and knowing it was like for. 4 to 6 months but it was hard to do for them. b.j. has informed the other villagers about the days that they've gathered advising them at meetings like this one. most farmers here used to rely purely on wheat it was a lucrative crop but one which consumed huge amounts of water now they cultivate a variety of crops depending on the market situation on the time of year to do that they divide their fields into individual plots. we take a piece of land and divide it into 4 sections. we use one part each for wheat mustard flowers and chickpeas. by doing that we have enough water

and we earn more from our crops and then the larger that. anyone who needs water takes some of the precious groundwater from their own wealth of which there are millions in india. getting people to only take a bare minimum and leave enough for everyone else was a challenge for the project. to the formerly. they were getting there on the run and there were no concern of 0. one big deal and they were just thinking about the site and water they have water but now they are thinking that. if they are of october that. and sarah walker among them for them to help. then be charged much more water. drip irrigation a kind of micro irrigation and sprinklers are also helping now they mean much less water evaporates or trickles away on use on the fields the new agricultural methods

mean farmers here use 70 percent less water. up the department of soil and water engineering a new die poor scientists constantly monitor the water quality in the region where the google john karr's operation. they compare the results from the various pj's in their respective regions once a week the australian project leader links up from western sydney university. he's glad the project has been so well received but adds that there's still a lot to do. the important things we want to do in this project still need to be done they were looking this lady's growing corporate to use. so that they become reality and also make sure that farmers are genuinely in the process not just.

lip service. now another opposite arrived which collates all the data in hindi as well by special request from the b j. the marvie project was launched 8 years ago in the states of good giraffes on raja style with a planned lifespan of 4 years. it's been extended several times and last year it was decided to broaden its reach to take in another $20000.00 villages across 7 indian states. 2 children 2 continents one giant problem mortar. and you have only ever seen a few drops of rain. this year the flood drowned everything. how will climate change affect our health and the health of our

children find out more at d w dot com slash water. is too often scarce polluted difficult to access in nigeria water supply problems can have an impact on basic dignity of the 201000000 people living in nigeria 56 percent only have access to an adequate sanitary facilities and a further 23 percent have no access to toilets at all and have to relieve themselves outdoors gaps in the power supply are a big problem to something as particularly clear in the most impoverished areas of lagos. the reader is a poor neighborhood of lagos an informal settlement with no school or hospital. came days samuel is a widow and lives here with her 4 children before the coronavirus pandemic as she was already struggling to cover energy costs for her house and to feed her family

it's become even the hardest since lagos went into lockdown. when the coronavirus came everybody had to stay indoors lots of family stuff we only have food handouts from private organizations and sometimes if you are unlucky the help might not reach. here women do the cooking. usually over an open wood fire and since this area's not on the grid people use diesel powered generators to get electricity. burning these fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. the authorities had no clear idea about the fuel usage here so they started to gather information before we record and here are used to know the type of image. in light in cooking and in the do not activity we should get this data i don't use it to feed into our climate action

plan so nor how we. you know. our options this reform are before us at the missing levels. c 40 is a network of almost 100 cities around the world including lagos that promotes climate action this energy usage survey is being carried out under its guidance the team go door to door they've already uncovered the main reasons why solar energy is not used more widely in such informal settlements where people who are not going for these do cause one they don't have the knowledge about and finance actually to get. but a local mini power grid is coming to argue a clean bill reka the government wants 10000 solar powered mini crates set up across the country by 2023. and environmental n.g.o.s teaches neighborhood

residents how to set up solar panels and how to turn daytime sunlight into nighttime street lamps to make life years safer. and when it is night it everywhere will be getting dark you can see even you can see from here to that so but where we started this you can see from here for are these towns so that the reason why we are doing this in the communities another problem here is poor sanitation this is a public toilet the waste goes straight into the river and contaminates the water used for washing and cooking another in geo called justice and empowerment initiatives recently built this toilet facility which uses a kind of composting system called a by a full digester to break down the waste. just metallic gani time is contributing to the project. some other do come around sit down. with storms oh my mechanism beautiful like this is just been this should be should be

for my house. and i said well it's help attracted to deter it's a common use it nobody said it. was interesting and a community about. the facility cost $1800.00 us dollars to use it you have to pay the equivalent of just under $1.00 cent. the money goes towards maintenance and cleaning. it goes out. and lights those people. so i mean it is the force in this community. so i had. to do more to live because we knew there was about the. for $5.00 indiscriminately this is a one we often are you are now is the allergy med drugs or limited option as. people in the reader are also happy about the new solar powered streetlights that are going up. in days samuel is looking forward to having light during the long

evenings she might eventually be able to do away with her diesel generator this would save her some much needed money well also reducing the area's carbon emissions. and that's all from us at global 3000 this week don't forget to send us your feedback you can write to us that global 3000 at d w dot com and we're on facebook to d.w.b. and d w women see you next time take care. o.

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guest at frankfurt airport city managed by from a bought. this is d w news line from the lead the head of german vaccine maker biotech says he's confident his company's drugs will work against the new variant corona virus which was identified in the u.k. if necessary over striking says his company could build a specially tailored vaccine in just 6 weeks also on the program. the brought a virus reaches the last covert 1000 free continent on earth

a research station in antarctica is eaten by an outbreak chile's military says 36 people are infected despite the thesis female under strict quarantine. plus a vision of hope at the end of a tough year a flock of paper dogs takes flight to the washington national cathedral. and aaron tilton welcome to the program german drugmaker biotech says it's confident that it's widely approve vaccine will work against the new variant coronavirus identified in britain the company says that if needed a version of that vaccine that specially targets the mutation could be ready with in weeks. the vaccine is about to be rolled out across the european union but the rapid spread of a new variant of the corona virus and person has sparked concerns though by on tech

and pfizer researchers are confident their vaccine will also prove effective against the new variant. has multiple. even percent of this protein is changed and that means 99 percent is still the same and they know that our sponsor sponsor that is induced by a vaccine is say is attacking this protein on multiple sites so that the likelihood is high and that the vaccines will still work but even get to the size into 2 weeks and then we can be sure. so far there haven't been any major problems with an occupation is already being administered in britain canada and the u.s. medical workers have reported relatively few side effects following that the use approval of the buy on tech pfizer vaccine many european citizens are eager to be vaccinated the expect that if additional exceed supply and companies

get approved this and that the would be able until the end of summer to teach sufficient seeing those this and selfish and immunity of the. 60 to 70 percent which could have us to control the pandemic before next week in winter in 10 to 21 my own tech is already planning to expand production capacity currently the vaccine for all of europe is only manufactured at its pfizer plant in the belgian town of poor us many are hoping life will soon return to normal without masks and without fear that should be possible if the goal of immunizing 60 to 70 percent of the population is attained. france has lifted its coronavirus blockade and will now allow truck drivers stranded in southern england to cross into the country but they 1st have to test negative for covert 19 france is also allowing

passengers from you countries to travel from britain borders were closed to travelers from the u.k. on sunday after a fast spreading coronavirus variant was identified there britain says it will take $2.00 to $3.00 days to process the current backlog of vehicles what a way to spend the last days before christmas hundreds of trucks queued on the road to dover in a line that stretches on and on and on foot dozens of kilometers some pulled over into the service stations it's here we meet. gunter from germany. we want to spend christmas at home without family it will be very bad if we can't. my wife has been really upset said she found out about all of this but what can i do often. these drivers couldn't have known the french border would suddenly slam shut on sunday since they have been stranded here some forced to literally live life on the road their anger growing as the hours pass. when you will basically be the

people you think here all children and of course. we know how what. the closure of dover didn't just her driver's one 5th of all goods bound for britain pass through the ports supermarkets and warned of shortages of basic goods if the port had remained closed much longer a key demand from france before reopening its border was testing the drivers getting those tests up for money and you know it can happen relatively quickly but in terms of the details of that that is something that both the transport sector in his counterpart will be discussing right now so i don't want to speculate in terms of you know the nature of the tests it and how soon that could be up and running all truckers will now be tested but that is said to be a huge logistical challenge with thousands stuck in various roads and time is of the essence only when test results come back negative well the stranded truckers finally be allowed to head home for christmas. john laurenson is covering the story

from paris for us he told us why french authorities are so anxious about this new coronavirus variant. they've been extremely concerned the people here are. very worried about so the sister to 6 they see coming out of the u.k. the extreme the rapid spread of this disease even if there is a reassuring side to this story is you know. what we're seeing is that people are not. having worse consequences for their medical conditions when they to contract device just far easier to contract miss this is that the repetitive to spread that this is getting alarm bells ringing in front as in other places in in europe because they they imagine that we could go go back to the situation that we saw in march in france where our hospitals in the east of the country in particular were being overwhelmed by the number of cases chile's military says the coronavirus has

reached a research station in antarctica at least 36 people have been effective at their bernardo o'higgins base following an outbreak earlier this month in elephant means that the pen demick has now reached every continent and arctic of but he says had been under strict quarantine. well our reporter after shorter is here with more on this story so tell us how exactly did covert get tanned arctica well it's not clear where exactly the fast case falls but this outbreak this cluster came to light when a chill a in supply ship at the navy supply ship returned from the base it's going to the it had traveled to the base in late november taking people and supplies to the general bernardo hagan's space and when the chilean navy said that all crew members had taken

a coronavirus test before the ship had left chile the mainland but on return last week 3 crew members tested positive and it was on monday that the chilean navy confirmed that there was a cluster of cases actually on the base now the crew members on the ship that currently being kept in quarantine about $21.00 of them actually have the virus but that's 208 cream members navy ship and we so earlier in the panda in in the pandemic halley of the sea air a lot of clusters happened just as of the coronavirus happening on cruise ships on navy ships mainly because crew members have to share sleeping spaces they share washing facilities and it's difficult to practice all the social distancing that you need to stop the virus from spreading all right so ed article as we know is one of the most dangerous and inhospitable places on the planet how has dealing with

this pandemic affected day to day life for the researchers living there so one of the biggest effects is that there are a lot fewer researches actually on the continent at the moment a lot of the bases and the research stations run by many different countries have reduced the numbers of people who are actually that and one of the big one raise about. out there coronavirus even getting to the continent is because of its remoteness. the obvious one is getting medical treatment it might mean flying back to say chile or to new zealand or to one of the countries that's closest to it so it's a remote place and the effort to keep the continent virus free that's at that was worrying quite a lot of people and then there are also questions of how these extreme temperatures can actually affect people's immune systems and how to allow them to actually deal with the virus have have

a listen we know that exposure to extreme weather effects of persons physiology isolation the changes in seasonal light with that seasonal sensitivity can also be immunosuppressive we know that there are several components that may further affect someone and lower their immune system in extreme conditions especially with the work they do there. so there are physical effects to contend with on the a person's ability to actually recover from the virus in those extreme conditions too all right so chile isn't the only country with bases in the region what are other countries doing to protect their research as an article so i mentioned that some some organizations are actually scaling back the amount of research that during for instance the the us and research one of the u.s. research basis is demanded that the research is going that far in quarantine to 6 weeks ahead of actually leaving say for instance new zealand to actually get to the

continent and what they've also done is they've reduced that there's obviously no tourism happening at the moment either then the trips that are coming in to the to antarctica and they're all skin people 20 mile 6 of course and the real big thing that they all doing is just scaling back the research for instance the british antarctic survey they aren't sending teams to the center of the continent any will they're just trying to maintain that base the research station there until the pandemic casas all right i know we have to leave it there but thank you for checking in with us and bring us up to date on the story all right now it's turn to some of the other news stories making headlines around the world u.s. president donald trump has rejected a new coronavirus relief bill passed by congress on monday calling it a quote unquote disgrace trump called for more money and more individuals and small

businesses the $900000000000.00 bipartisan bill was passed after months of wrangling between democrats and republicans. commercial flights between israel and morocco have started after the countries agreed to normalize relations the 1st flight from tel aviv arrived in robot carrying a delegation including u.s. envoy jared kirschner is the latest diplomatic deal between the jewish state and the arab nation despite protests from palestinians and israel is set to have its 4th election in 2 years after parliament failed to meet a deadline to pass a budget prime minister benjamin netanyahu formed his current unity government with centrist politician benny gantz in may after 3 inconclusive elections. russia says it's. your opinion officials from entering the country in retaliation for e.u. sanctions over the poisoning of opposition leader likes involving the latest

measures were imposed after just a day after mr deval any released a video of a russian agent apparently confessing to the attack moscow denies any involvement. the washington national cathedral is all aflutter with a flock of 2000 or gum origami doves now doves are a common motif around christmas time but this installation is more than just a holiday decoration. white dogs a symbol of peace and freedom the dog is also the messenger the dean of washington national cathedral hopes the message here can be one of transformation. it's a thing of beauty and a thing of hope the thing that points to a future that's coming when we're no longer dominated by this pandemic this place is a place of beauty anyway but. to a during this difficult time is just a wonderful addition to the installation may be timely but the fluck created by

german artist michel pantry has already appeared in cathedrals across the world over the past 6 years it's called les cologne meaning the dogs. it's been to jerusalem it's been to munich it's been to new york it's been to san francisco it's been to london because the eagle in england so these stars literally come from all over the world from all different countries from different people different religions that idea behind it so another meaning like the flock is growing. let alone that it's a multi-sensory exhibition that explores the white birds as an ongoing symbol of the spirit how that changed and what it means for us today the concept of the exhibition is one if unity. and i started to involve people and i'm falling out of this space and in bars and restaurants where when we were falling does that this is a really none of those dogs are the same they're all individual differences even though

they look from here to look the same but they're not. though currently closed local and what will remain a feature of the washington cathedral till my. that's all for now coming up next is our special edition on the home run of crisis don't forget you can get all the latest news information around the clock on our web site that's d w dot com i'm aaron thompson brylin. we'll be back at the top of the hour with more headlines. the fight against the corona virus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing what does the latest research say. information and context the coronavirus update 19. next on t w. how does

a virus spread. why do we panic and when we'll. just through the text.