>> hello and welcome to "global 3000," your weekly check on the global issues that affect us all. and football is, of course, one of them, not just during the world cup. here's a look at some of the topics we'll take a look at over the next half hour. why providing health care helps protect nature in congo. how cricket nation pakistan is supplying the world with footballs. and, we visit europe's hydroelectric powerhouse, norway.

>> the democratic republic of congo is a rich country on paper, but the oil wealth that could help build a prosperous nation has so far mainly fuelled conflict. both with its neighbors and among its own communities. all efforts to re-build the state have consistently failed, even after more than a decade. rampant corruption is leaving people languishing in poverty and without access to basic services. especially if they live in remote areas like the ngiri triangle along the congo river. those swamps make tough terrain for humans. but they are a crucial reserve for the country's wildlife. conservationists are now applying an unusual formula to keep that ecosystem intact. they are providing health care to the people who live there.

>> in parts of the democratic republic of the congo, medical care arrives by water. the rivers are the roads in this country. the boat was a donation from germany. it travels into the ngiri reserve, the largest swamp forest in central africa. dr. yoursen bosolo and his colleagues bring help to places where there are no doctors. the floating clinic travels the congo river and its tributaries for weeks. >> the ambulance boat gives free medical care to patients in the villages around the ngiri reserve. we make an average of six trips

a year to a total of 29 villages around the reserve. those villages are extremely difficult for health care workers to reach. >> didier mazongo from the world wide fund for nature is on board. he's the project director in the ngiri reserve. >> we're now in the nature reserve in the ngiri triangle, where there are quite a number of villages. the aim of this project is to improve the living conditions of the population while helping them preserve its biodiversity. >> the rain forest in central africa actually has one of the world's highest levels of biodiversity. but the forests, rivers, and sand banks here are empty.

civil war, poverty, and hardship have almost wiped out the fauna along the ngiri river. didier mazongo takes us deeper into the reserve. large areas of the forest along the ngiri are under water almost all year long. that's the only reason many animals can survive there, although no one knows exactly how many. >> we're now in the heart of the reserve, with its specific character as a swamp forest, which plays a crucial role in maintaining the water supply and preserving biodiversity. you can still find rare antelope species and even hippopotami in this river. >> a practice exercise with game wardens in the reserve. they have to be quick to catch

poachers. good training ensures survival. it's a dangerous job. there are a lot of weapons in the country. often it's local people who hunt the animals in the reserve. >> the greatest threat to the fauna are the traps set by the village communities. but they also use guns. that's why the game wardens patrol the reserve every day. but they also go into the villages and explain to the people how important the reserve is. >> subsistence hunting wouldn't be so damaging for the fauna. but a great deal of game and fish is taken by boat to the capital, kinshasa, about 800 kilometers away.

jephté mpondjo and sylvain lombolo fish on the edges of the reserve. almost all the people in their village live from fishing and a bit of farming. like many here, the two used to fish with mosquito nets. >> we depend on fishing for our livelihood. there used to be lots of fish here. that's why there was always a large market in our village. with the income from fishing we could buy medicine and clothing. but many here fish with fine-meshed nets. that enables them to catch a lot of fish, but that includes the small ones. so, now there are hardly any fish here anymore. >> at the village market, the results are clear to see. bread, manioc, fruit, and beans are on offer but scarcely

anything else. the situation has become dramatic, even though the environmentalists sometimes find surprises. >> here among these fish are some from a species that we don't usually find anymore. we'd thought the species had disappeared here. it's called lilangua. albert, how big do they normally get? >> very often, i've seen them reach the size of my forearm. >> there are hardly any alternatives for the people here. the doctors also know that people will only be able to show any consideration for nature if

their own lives improve. >> the most frequent illnesses here are malaria, sexually transmitted diseases, acute respiratory diseases, diarrhea, and anemia. the local population's health problems have a lot to do the -- do with the difficulty of getting access to medical care due to poverty and the fact that they're far away from the big cities. night has fallen and the doctors are still at work. they've already treated more than 300 patients in a mere two days. and their trip has only just started. >> those doctors will reach a few thousand patients over the coming weeks. millions of congolese live without basic health care as successive regimes in the capital have failed to develop a viable infrastructure.

pakistan is one of the top cricketing nations, and yet football, or soccer, is central to the lives of many workers there. that's because pakistan is where around 35 million soccer balls are produced every year. during the world cup probably a few hundred thousand more. the city of sialkot in the north of the country has become a hub for ball production. and yet actually seeing anyone playing the beautiful game is still a rarity there. >> they are the real soccer world cup winners, so they've put up a trophy right in the center of town. this is the city of sialkot in pakistan, although most people here are more interested in cricket than they are in soccer. >> soccer is not something i think about. i think soccer is football. football in pakistan is not improvement. >> focusing on football was an economic decision in sialkot.

the city lives from manufacturing soccer balls. they're no longer made of leather. a polyurethane covering is cut into pentagons and hexagons which are sewn together. the bladder is inserted and the resistance to pressure is tested. afterwards the air is let out again, so the footballs don't take up too much space when packed. 35 million of them are shipped annually from pakistan all over the world. >> it started pre-partition, when british rule was there, and some craftsmen, some good workers who started making initiative how to make the soccer balls, and gradually the industry is now in full peak. >> pakistan remains the undisputed leader in

manufacturing hand-stitched soccer balls, which are also used in championships. only when it comes to the completely machine-made models has the title now gone on to china. manufacturing a pakistani football costs the equivalent of three euros. mohámed ashraf has been sewing them for 38 years, since he was 12. sialkot's economic miracle guarantees stability, especially in pakistan, where so little is predictable. mohámed earns the equivalent of 70 euros a month. when demand for the balls rises before the world cup, he gets pay for overtime. his family needs every rupee. food is getting more expensive. >> my 14-year-old son left school after five years. now he's also a stitcher. my daughter here helps around the house. after her seventh year at school we could no longer pay for her transportation. this boy is 12, and we're doing everything to make sure he gets a good education.

>> stitching soccer balls is largely a cottage industry. the companies outsource stages of the production process to individuals. the hand-stitching is done in workers' homes, even for the major brands. workers earn a euro per ball. five or six a day are a good average. >> stitching balls is better than cultivating rice fields. we parents do this so we can offer our children something better in life. >> and in fact soccer balls once meant anything but fun and games for children in sialkot. their small hands were used to sew them. child labor instead of school was the norm. only under outside pressure did things change. the wholesale buyers, the major sports equipment manufacturers, wanted to distance themselves from the image of running child sweatshops. since then, inspectors from the

independent monitoring association for child labor make unannounced house checks in sialkot to see if the minimum standards are being maintained. >> we try to look out if there's any underage worker here. for that purpose, we look at the profiles of all the children who are from this family, whether they are going to school or not. we do not do one thing for 24 hours. if they have work here, they could be working even at night. so, what is the level of production? if one can produce only, say, five balls a day, it should not be possible for them to stitch, say, a hundred balls a day. >> do they still find children working? >> we do occasionally, but, you, know i think in the last five to six years the number of incidences have reduced to almost nil. and if at all any child labor is involved or any child at all is involved in the stitching, that child must be going to school.

>> the monitors are active every day. their deployment is paid for by the sialkot chamber of commerce and aid organizations. there are hundreds of local sewing groups like this, because many men would never let their wives or daughters leave the district on their own to go to work. >> my own wishes are not considered. women here are forced to stay at home. it's better to stitch balls than sit around being bored. >> on balance, sialkot has come out a winner. the world's champion soccer ball manufacturing city now has its own international airport and a container terminal, from which the balls are shipped all over the world. >> and now we'd like to tickle your taste buds with the latest addition to our global snack menu, those no-fuss foods people like to enjoy on the go. today we join the queue for a

sabich in tel aviv, for what oved dan-jell promises is the best snack in the world. but if you're not convinced and think you can top it, then please drop us a line and tell us about your favorite global snack and we'll be sure to test it and spread the word. district of metropolitan tel aviv, customers are patiently waiting their turn. oved daniel claims he makes the best sabich in the universe. there's no false modesty here, and why should there be? his sabich is known all over israel. the vegetarian snack consists of fried aubergine, hard-boiled egg, hummus, lettuce, parsley, and amba, a tangy mango pickle, packed in pita bread.

>> the pita bread has to be warm and firm. if it's spongy the snack won't be good, even if all the other ingredients are right. every single one of the many ingredients has to satisfy the boss's high standards -- the aubergine must be hot and crisp, and the egg is boiled with spices for a long time. >> jews from iraq brought this snack to israel. they eat it on shabbat. everyone makes it a bit differently, but the basic ingredients are always the same. in hebrew, the word sabich stands for "s" as in salad greens, "e" as in egg, "n" as in another, and "a" for aubergine. of course that's just his story. -- >> of course that's just his story. sabich probably comes from the arabic word for breakfast. it's become one of the most popular snacks in the country.

oved sees each of his customers as a player on a football pitch. he explains the rules to newcomers. >> every spoonful of sauce is a goal. how many points? 3. a sandwich costs 20 shekels, the equivalent of about four euros. >> these are the best, no question about it. there are others. competition is stiff. but his eggplant is simply the tastiest. and he puts on a good show. >> oved daniel and his wife have run the snack bar since 1978. he stands behind the counter day and night. he has lots of fans, because he never lets anyone get bored with his game. >> red sauce -- that's the hapoel tel aviv team. amba, the yellow sauce, is maccabi tel aviv. if you come from abroad, then

i'll play a home game with you. take germany, for instance. there, we have the bundesliga -- bayern munich, borussia dortmund. football. >> his customers send him greetings from all over the world. no wonder -- because they share his opinion. it's the best sabich in the whole universe. savory, sweet, or spicy? what kind of no fuss food do you like most when you are out? send us a photo of your global snack. global3000@dw.de. or better yet, facebook. good luck.

>> europe says it wants to take a lead in renewable energies, and yet the eu is still a far way from a joint energy policy on producing and storing energy. germany is just now in the process of fine-tuning its energy turnaround, a strategic plan to move away from fossil fuels. at the moment germany can cover around a quarter of its energy needs from renewables. at the same time coal has recently been on the rise and 15% still comes from the country's remaining nuclear reactors. so, there's still some way to go if germany want to meet its target of 45 % renewables by 2025 >> storage is the buzzword when it comes to that. here norway might hold the key to solving that problem. its vast hydroelectric power plants could function as giant batteries for the whole continent. sounds like a great idea, but not all norwegians are convinced. >> water, water everywhere.

in addition to oil and gas deposits, norway's abundant water makes it one of europe's most important energy producers. tall mountains and a high precipitation provide ideal conditions for hydropower. blåsjø, the country's largest reservoir, lies at an elevation of more than a thousand meters. 14 dams ensure that the pumped-storage power station connected to it always has enough water. the turbines deep in the rock produce 2000 megawatts an hour, more than a nuclear power station. >> the water coming into this turbine starts to rotate the turbine. the generator rotates, then we produce power. so simple is it. >> the power station can also store electricity. to do so, the turbines pump water back up into the mountain. when needed, it's discharged again and the turbines produce

electricity. >> the blåsjø, the large reservoir on the very top of this system has a storage of energy close to 8 terawatt hours when it's filled up with water. that's a very large battery. and that would be equal to four years' supply of energy to, for example, the stavanger area with no need of rain or snow. >> with relatively little effort, energy from germany could also be temporarily stored in ulla-førre. for that, both the german and norwegian electricity grids would have to be extended. much more importantly, it would require a high-capacity cable link between the two countries. the dutch have had access to the norwegian grid since 2008. denmark has several cable connections to its neighbor in

the north. a similar link to britain is in the planning. the submarine cable to germany is set to be laid starting next year. but the grid operator, statnett, doesn't just want to export energy to germany. >> the whole idea here is to exchange power so that when there is a surplus of wind power and solar power in germany we can afford that for a reasonable price and when you haven't got sun, when you haven't got wind and you have a larger demand then we can export our hydro-power for a reasonable price to germany. >> the investment costs for the link to germany are about 2 billion euros. that would increase the price of energy in norway. but in the cold north, heating is almost exclusively electric. no other country in the world uses so much electricity. in oslo, the house owners lobby association views the plans with skepticism.

>> being connected to the european grid means we also import european prices, which actually raises the price levels here a lot. and he says saving electricity would be difficult for the norwegians. >> you could stop heating the pavements with electricity. but i mean in a normal home, the building is there. and it has a certain energy quality. and if you don't use the amount of energy you need to keep it warm, you will freeze. that is the problem. >> the electric power companies want to make norway a supplier for all of europe. activists like lasse heimdal fear that would have a massive impact on the environment. >> it's not the solution to built more power plants. the solution is finding new

technology and find a solution for energy storing and energy saving. we are really afraid that statkraft and similar companies will only value the norwegian nature according to money and kilowatts, and not giving the value of nature itself the right price. >> germany will need the norwegian water reservoirs in future, because it's decided to abandon nuclear energy. and the hydropower plant in ulla-førre is by no means stretched to capacity. >> we have analyzed it and it and of course it is possible to increase the pump storage capacity without doing anything with the reservoirs, with the tunnels with the dams. >> the country's power companies are ready and willing. in 2020, german electricity from wind and solar energy sources could be stored in norway for the first time.

>> and next week we'll be looking at the air we breathe. more and more of the world's major cities are struggling to get air pollution under control. car traffic is the major factor in this. take mexico city, where the authorities are grappling with growing traffic volumes. in an attempt to reign in pollution city, authorities are taking more and more buses and lorries off the roads. at the same time, roof gardens offer a breath of fresh air. so, we'll have more on that next time. if you would like to watch any of today's reports again, you can find them online along with plenty more information. but for now, thanks for watching. bye-bye. captioned by the national captioning institute >> she's got what it takes.çñmw

♪ ♪ >> la goss, nigeria a city with unofficial population of over 20 million a microcosm of africa. to both extreme wealth and extreme