announcer: opportunity. prpeperity. timimism. that's t the power of f global trtrade. dhlhl. ♪ hohost: this weeeek on 300000 nation suffering increasiningly from the effects of extreme weather. what arere local people doing to cope? bolivia is estimated to own around half the woworld's reserveses of lithihium. can this new "white gold hope to the desperately poor nation? but first we go to italy, , where human traffickers are forcing more and more women ininto prostitution.

human trafficking is a highly lucrative business, and it's often linked to rced labor. it affects women, men, and children. the international labor organization estimates that human trafficking is worth at least $150 billion per year. the majority -- two thirds -- is made from forced sexual exploitation. the remainder, through illegal work -- for example, in households or on farms. in 2016, more than 40 million people were believed to be living in slavery -- and women and girls make up 70% of them. nigerian women have a decades-long history of being smuggled over to europe, many via italy. the u.n. says there's been an almost 600% increase over the past three years of potential sex trafficking victims arriving in italy by sea. the majority of them,

from nigeria. reporter: the italian city of turin is t the people trafficker gatey to europe. from here, criminals distribute their sesex slaves to the content't's othels and cusisides womenen led here with lies about the goodod job supposedlyly waiting for them. morere than 9000 were smsmuggled intoto italy in 202016 ane. incess okokon has made it herlife'sissision tfree a as ny ofof them as shehe can. prinssss: thfirst t contt is not easy for theirlsls tspeak their probms..so i normally veve themy cocontacts and t the phone of f the offifice and addreress, so that t in se if they have a mind to eaeak wi me. cause most of the time theyararin groups,s, so th will l be afraraid of one oror maybe two m might t t their cretet out

reporter: her first approa o of the evening. princessss has to be c careful the pimps don't notice her. this womoman says she'e's been woworking here e every day for two years. whwhen her childldren are older she sasays, she'll finally be abable to get t away. princess warns her to always use condoms, and she says she does. princessss: you use a a condom alalways, thoughgh? >> yes. princecess: ok, bye-e-bye. reporter: princess and her husband alberto run the ngo piam, which tries to help thee forced i into the sex x trade. like this desperate nigegerian woman who tells s princessss about her pimp -- a woman. princess: what happened, where did she take you to? >> she said i should f follow a friend. anand she gave m me some conondoms. so i i'm so shockeked because i

hadn't known it was ththat kind job. so f from there, i i didn't haveve any choice, apart frfrom to do it.t. report: : it'sot immediately clear ifhis s won will risk fleeg hehepimp's clutches. osose who do takake thplungege c find prorotection in o one of f the secret refefuges the piaiam runs. princess viss ththe men constant.. incess: the best part is whena a womatakes the finadedecision -- not to go back to the wk,k, as aroststitut when i see a woman having th dere. reporter: eze and naomliveven one of the ruges.the o friends e safe there but t isated, and they mss eir frfrdom. still, is woworldsway frfr prostution, or theorrorors they s sfered making the wayay hehere through l libya.

nanai: i was arrested and somehow, r raped once. the peoplple i was with, , every titime they beatat me with a r rod. sosotimes they take their guns d d put itn mymy anu in the nightht, they wakee everybodody up at the e time of 11:00, 12:00, 1:00. they we e you, ty tatake tir gugun and put it i in your anus.s. ank god i left there, crossed,and i me t to ity. when i c came at first it was still not tttter. still trying to get over the pains. i i found out ththat it was eveven worse e because i hahave to use mymy body to make the money. rereporterprinincessas first-hand expererience of thahat -- haviving been trafafficked to tuturin heelf. rtunately she met her husband alalberto, and n now they leadad a happy,y, family lifefe. she left nigeria wn she was 23.. she had hoped to work as a ckk in ily..

instead, she was sold to anununknown man.n. princess: the first day theytotook me to thehe streets i startrted crying. then i went to the back of the stbins a a i starteded asking god, whwhy do you senend me here? i closed my eyesi open a again. i thouought it was a a dream. then i s saw that it wasn't adream. iwawas realy. so later o on when they y took meback tthe e hous the w wom said, bebecae that m m refused to turn my money. so sheroroke mhead w wh the heel of ththe shoe. and when c came back frorom th hospspal, that w was when i knknow that it t is very seririous. yeahah, it was about six to eight ntnths. i was lulucky to meet t alberto, whoho came to o listen to meme and also

find s solution n to my liberty. reporter: : it's no coinincidence that tururin became a a human trafafficking hub.b. in the 198980's, nigeria opened consate e here the opopleraffickers wereququick take e adntage of it toorganize visas f their viims.s. itas the beginning of a bral buness. sometimes, princess and albertrto ke yououngomen who haven't yet fallen prey to trafficke o on a spececial ur of f e city -- showing them the r realitiesf stre p prostition.n. prininss: i toldou people that we are goingo o turin seeee wherere our girls s are working.g. you rememember i said d one day we wi go? >> yes. prince: a-a-ha this nights ththe da

rereporter: thisis evening's t two passenengers can bararely asp ththe ea that wowomen -- jusust like themseselves -- are e being openly mamarketed here e on the streeeets ke m meat. thisis is a fate p princess wantnts to saveve as many womomen from as possible. and althoughumuman traickiking is stillll on the risese, she says she'll nevever give up.. host : smart phones, laptops, tablets, electric-powered vehicles like hybrid and electric cars and electric scooters -- all of them depend on rechargrgeable batterieies. demandnd for batteryry-powered vehicles is rising rapapidly. and that's where lithium comes in. the light metal is an essential element in new kinds of batteries -- earning it the nickname in 2015, the pricece of lithium was almost $7000 per ton.

since then it's almost tripled. it's found in abundance in chile, argentina, and bolivia. but bolivia has been slow to exploiit. s exteive reserv lie 350 metersrsbove seaevel in lar deyuni, e world's rgest sa flat. reporter: the uyuni salt flat is the world's largest. beneath the crust is a pool of brine containing the world's largest knknown deposit t of lithium -- an estimated nine milillion tons of f it. the e metal is a r resource of immense value, and could have a huge impact on the economy of bolivia, currently the poorest country in south america. bibig trucks and other heavy equipment are nocrcrisscroingg e otherwe pristi white surface.

new extraction facilities are under construction in this fragile ecosystem. at the moment, evaporation pools cover just 0.5% of the salt flat. this is still a pilot project, but the bolivian government has approved plans to open a larger area of the salt flat for lithium extraction. marco: the brine is pumped into the pools.s. in the first one, heavier metals are left behind as the water evaporates. the remaining water is then pumped into the second pool, and so on. the eighth pool contains the lithium, which is very light but not yet pure. reporter: ten years ago, the bolivian government declared lithium extraction a national priority. at this small plant at the edge of the salt flat, the state lithium company produces marketable lithium -- freed from magnesium and other impurities in a complex process.

the purer the lithium, the better -- for use in lithium batteries and rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. lithium has become a hot commodity. the entire world lusts after it. marco: our industrial plant will go into operation soon. we have the technology. we're just going to scale up a lot, so we can sell lithium around the world. reporter: the current facility produced 12 tons of pure lithium carbonate over two months -- six for china, and six for russia. it sells for the equivalent of 10,000 euros a ton -- made in bolivia. for bolivia, this valuable natural resource could prove a stroke of luck. electric-powered cars and smart

phones currently rely on lithium-ion batteries. the socialist government of president evo morales has pledged to develop the country's lithium inindustry, with bolivia calling the shots. foreign investors and companies should play as small a role as possible. everybody here at the plant, from the boss to the drivers, is proud to be involved. >> it's an honor to be part of something that might one day bring enduring prosperity to our country. >> it creates jobs, because we are going to grow fast. maria: i had a teacher at school who said, world will talk about us not because of our silver mines, but because of lithium. he said we would make batteriess here one day. to be honest, we all thought he was a bit crazy. but now that i'm working here, i understand the process of industrialization depends on our commitment

and on our hard work. reporter: maria belen andreada is responsible for safety at the plant. lithium has created 1000 jobs here. staff at the plant work for two weeks and then have a week off. she's taking the bus home to potosi. it's a four-hour ride. we visit her there. there's a lot to see. at an elevation of over 4000 meters, the city is one of the highest in the world. since colonial times, its silver and tin mines have made its foreign owners rich and its workers sick. it's been reported that hundreds of children still work in the mines. many bolivians fear that foreign companies will again try to take control of their country's natural resources. maria: my city is poor despite its natural resources. now we have a second chance -- this

time with lithium, which we call whihite gold. we hope not just to extract it but to develop an entire production chain and process it ourselves. as a nation, we want to do it on our own terms. reporter: outside of town, there is a factory for rechargeable lithium batteries. it's is a major step forward for the country. now it's looking for international partners to help develop the industry -- without them tryrying to take control. bolivivia has passed a law tha says foreign firms may retain no more than a 49% stake in any joint venture. juanan: we are lookiking for a partner with experience who is also ablble to keep upup with the rapid innovavation in energy storage technology. that's our strategic goal.

we wanant to be involved not only in supplying batteteries for electric cars, but also renewable energies. reporter: of course, there's a lot of foreign interest in the huhuge deposit o of lithium inin the saltlt flat of uyuyuni. chchina is particularly keen. a state-owned chinesee engineering company is already here. it's building a plant to make potassium chloride fertilizer. and the plant happens to be close to t the lithium p pools. ji: i just heard from newspapers and also information from my friends and also from ients. yeah, it's tru because lhium resource here is more than 60% of total in the world. reporter: but it has nothing to do with your job here?

ji: i didn't get information until now from our head office. sorry. reporter: what oil was to the 20th century, lithium might be to the 21st. if electric cars continue to take offff, the metal l could be a source of great wealth. fofor now,olivivia is tryingng to ride the lithium wave, and hoping to tap its stores. >> i am -- > -- a global teen. st: today, we meet a global teteen froburkrkina so. the 1717-year-old lilives in the capital ofof the west afafrican nation. beberice: my name's atririce borerend

i livin agadougou. i have a bigrothererthree big sisters,ndnd a ltle sist. p parents were farmer butut major roroad cstruction work meant they lost eir land nothey don't do ything any more. i like going to schoolol becausewewe lea lots s there, and because all my friends are there. wewe never get b bored.

i want t to be a lawyeyer because there's soso much injustice, and ththere aren't e enough peoplele defeining the le o of la i'm happy when everyone around me is happy. bebecause when t they're happypy, they alalso do erytythingo makeke y happy. a lot of politicns in n me countries ly c carabout ththr owown rsonal interests. then they n'n't ca abouthe rest of the opople.

wewe, i don't t travel very much but t from what i i re about o other children, , i think thatat in other parts of t the world they y ally suffer, esespecially s street kids. some of them get realllly badly exploited. host: this week in our global ideas series, we're off to vietnam -- a nation suffering from ever more frequent bouts of extreme weather -- flooding, storms, heat-waves, and cold snaps. rural regions are particularly haha hit, leavaving local farmers struggling to protect theirr crops. the coastal l province of f quang

nh is regurly hit bytorms. at can it to adapt exextreme weather? the allelees are manany, especiallyly given the c count's hihighopululation deitity. our reporter, kerstin schwzezer, adeded the to fifind out more.e. anh: vietnam is one of the countries that has the most impact frorom climate chchange. wewe are especiaially affecteded by the storms. for example, for 2017 in vietnam, we had 17 storms come through the country. i come from the local area. that's why i understand the hard-working, hard life that people are facing, especially the poor p people, that disadvantaged

group. i think that that group, they need the support. the people in the village, their income mainly depends a lot on patty ce cultition andome fiing. and they have a small garden but e wowomen,hey alalsoack owledge and skil --- technical knowlee e and ills to earn n a living. that thuyen: thananks to the prproject, i have learneded a lot aboutut taking care of fish -- like what ki of food theyey need, what t to feedd the babies, and what to feed the adults. i've also learned hohow to keepp them healtlthy and how to treat illnesesses. thisis project helelps create jojobs.

i'llelell my fisish at the markeket, and ththat means incomome for my fafaly. quang: i was born and grew up in the village. for me, the most important thing here is the people. i i am really cocommitted to t them. we'r're farmers. we'r'rfriendly a and open. wewe stick togetether, and we e help each other. our village is hit by natural disasters every year. we receckon with onene or two typhoons evevery season, a as well as one or twtwo major floodsds. all

ththe storms andnd heavy windsds cause even more oblelems- the coastle isis recing ----he sea is swalling upupur land. at t same time, sand iades ouour hos and thfields where werow w oufood. we arere planting lolots more treeees. we're e restoring ththe forest too y to mitigate e impactctf imate chan. the forest creates shade a a a ki of f climic bufuffer zone. ititerves as a wind-break and opops the il f from ying o out the treeees help cleanan the air off pollutioion and reducece greenhousee gagas. what's more, during the phphoon season, , the forest h helps preventnt the sandnd from driftiting in from

the coasast to the village. it shidsds us a ttlele frothe furyry of the stororms. h: this villagcan n be model for other llagesn vietnam. because in this, you see the role of the communities in the protectingng of the forerests and in the climatate change resesponse. and they understood about ee ececystem services tt ththey ll get from this model a perfect vietnam in my dream, that will be a beautiful

untry, ecomically deloped, course, with lots of well-d-developed infnfrastructure.e. and alsoso there couldld be more nature, morere forests wilill be protecected, rehabililitated. and people c can also liveve very frfriendly with h the environmnment. and for the e local people, theywoululd have a betetter life, hahave a goodod income, andnd enjoy theirir life. host: that's all for today. but we love hearing from you, so do drop us a line with your comments. write to global3000@dw.com, or post on facebook. see you next time. and ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

announcer: opportunity. prosperity. optimism. at's the power of global tre.e. by dhl..

narrator: today on "earth focus," religion and developmpment in asia. filmmakers kalyanee mam and gary marcuse on how cultural traditions intersect with economic growth in cambodia and china. coming up on "earth focus." kalyanee: as an immigrant, as a refugee, you know, from cambodia, my family and i, you know, fled cambodia when i was four years old. and what i realized was what happening in areng valley was that the people were also being threatened by the sameme