oñoñoñoñoñoñoñoñ host: welcome to "global 3000." living among the dead -- an unusual and special district in cairo could soon be demolished. the business of thirst -- just who is profiting from the global water crisis? and longed-for babies in a war-torn country -- the plight of ukrainian surrogate mothers. many couples decide they want to have a baby together. and for most of them, it works out. this year in fact, more than

16,000 children were born every hour. but what happens if you can't have children? the world health organization estimates that worldwide around 48 million couples are unable to conceive. infertility has become a billion-dollar business. one potential solution is surrogacy. that is when a woman agrees to carry and give birth to a baby in order to give it to someone who can't have children. according to a study from 2020, the industry is worth more than 4 billion u.s. dollars and is rising dramatically. surrogacy is banned in many countries. but not in ukraine. clinics there had been booming for years. then the war came. reporter: tatyana is a surrogate mother. she and her daughter left for warsaw, poland, fleeing the war in ukraine and the questionable business model she's found herself trapped in. the intended parents of the baby tatyana is carrying live

in ireland. tatyana: money is the main motivation. i admit that and all the other women you might ask will do too. it's impossible to earn enough here to buy a house. it's really difficult. reporter: tatyana will be paid 15,000 euros for the surrogacy. that's more than she'd earn in three years. several hundred ukrainian surrogates find themselves in tatyana's situation, pregnant in the midst of war. tatyana was in kyiv when russia invaded. the surrogacy agency demanded she stay there for the birth. her own daughter was still with her grandparents in kharkiv, where they often had to take refuge in air-raid shelters. tatyana asked the agency for help fetching her daughter to no avail. tatyana: the surrogacy agency told me i

was not allowed to fetch my daughter. my own child. i'm responsible for two children -- the one i'm carrying and my own. reporter: the situation in kharkiv kept deteriorating. in desperation, tatyana set out on her own and fled with her 12-year-old daughter to warsaw. the intended parents in ireland are helping financially. they rented tatyana an apartment in warsaw and are paying for her prenatal care. but tatyana feels abandoned by the agency. tatyana: i would accuse the agency of negligence in their treatment of us surrogates. they have failed to treat us well. i mean we are people, too. reporter: in ukraine, commercial surrogacy is legal and involves

about 2500 babies a year. it's a lucrative business for the country that's been dubbed the "baby factory" of the world. but now the babies are stranded, their intended parents delayed due to the war. we met a surrogate mother who asked to remain anonymous. she gave birth a few days ago. now she's waiting for the intended parents, who live in germany. this was her third surrogate pregnancy. she needs the money to support her own children. the intended parents -- patricia and her husband -- have arrived from germany to pick up their baby. a meeting in a country ravaged by war. patricia gets to hold her baby for the first time. the moment she's been waiting for. it's a boy.

they're planning to name him henry. his father is also overjoyed. patricia: all the worry and the stress -- it's just all pouring out. reporter: in a few days the couple plan to return to germany with henry -- a dangerous journey. later the surrogate mother tells us that the agency forced her to travel hundreds of kilometers through war-torn ukraine for the birth. surrogate: suddenly they told me either you come to us, or you won't get paid. reporter: despite her fear, she was left with little choice. an eight-hour journey through an embattled region, just three days before she gave birth. was this just an isolated case? or are the agencies all too willing to put the surrogate mothers at risk? it's hard to find anyone willing to be interviewed.

our contact in kyiv writes, "99 percent of surrogate mothers in ukraine don't want to speak on camera right now." eventually we hear from a surrogate from eastern ukraine, who also doesn't want to appear on camera. shwrites, "my agency basically vanished. but yesterday they called and said i have to go to kyiv to give birth. instead of a safe place, they're sending me through bombing and shelling just to save money, while i fear for my life!" the market leader, biotexcom, is still advertising its services online as though the war that's claiming so many lives didn't exist. >> the clinic hasn't stopped its work for a single day. medical staff, customer service managers, and top management all have been working in an intensive mode from the first day of the war. reporter: we ask biotexcom how it's ensuring the safety of its surrogate mothers. are they being forced to travel

through a combat zone to give birth? maria: they stay in their towns o villages as long as it's quiet there. and when their due date approaches, they have to come closer to where we are. but it's also possible for the mothers to give birth in other cities. reporter: the spokespers defends the controversial business model, but it's the surrogate mothers who pay the price. in warsaw, tatyana is due to give birth and hand the baby over to the parents from ireland. she won't be a surrogate again and put herself at the mercy of a lucrative industry that plies its trade at the expense of women, war or no war. ♪ host: dust storms sweep over a drought-ridden country.

there's no green in sight. the u.n. says droughts have increased by nearly a third compared with the beginning of the millennium. subsaharan africa is the worst hit. but natural water supplies in parts of asia, europe, and america are also dwindling. by 2050, more than three-quarters of the global population could be affected by drought. but water scarcity also brings big profits. reporter: two regions, across the planet from each other, with the same problem -- they're running out of water. this past spring, in klamath, oregon, farmers' wells ran dry. prothe groundwater levels inut punjab were so low, nasa alerted india about it. and they're not alone. around 4 billion people experience severe water scarcity at least one month a

more comes at a cost. so why and ware we running out? and who is profiting? just 1% of the water on earth sustains all life, and it doesn't just disappear. it travels around the planet in what's called the water cycle. let's quickly brush up on that. when the air is hot, it warms the water. water th evaporateinto the atmosphere. there it cools and condenses, forming clouds. they move around the planet horizontally in what are called atmospheric rivers. when there's enougwater in a cloud, it rains. and if it's cold enough, it snows. in the spring, snow melts to feed rivers, providing a source of water to the land during the coming hot months of the year. but climate change is messing this all up.

rising temperatures mean more water falling as rain instead of snow. and the little snow there is evaporates rather than flowing downstream. less snow means less water during the summer. all this means there is more water in the air and less water on the ground. over time, the ground dries out, like an unused sponge. the issue with this is that wet ground absorbs water much better than dry ground, so when it rains after years of drought, the water just washes away, leading to things like flash floods. so, the longer droughts last, the more water is needed to refresh the land. in short, climate change speeds drought, a less watefor us.re and as theorld popationn, more grs, we're using more and more of it.

the question is, for what? well, 70% of it goes to agriculture. in some countries, it is even higher. producing meat uses more water than any other food product. and to support those levels, we've changed the natural way waters flow. susanne: especially in the 50s, 60s, but also later, we've seen really a boom of dam building because everyone wanted -- for good reasons -- to use water resources to lift people out of poverty and to boost economic development. reporter: sunne schmeier is an associate professor in water law and diplomacy at ihe delft, an education facility specifically dedicated to water. susanne: not only with dams, but generally with all the wer infrastructure that benefits a certain economic use or a certain sector over others, especially local communities, you have aincrease in inequality in terms of who's using water. reporter: that's what happened in klamath, oregon, where a series of dams supplied water to alfalfa and potato farms. river water levels dropped, and fish populations important to the

region's indigenous people plummeted. 11,620 kilometers east, in punjab, india, communities are facing a similar issue. samrat: there is a significant groundwater depletion in punjab, which is visible even from the satellite. reporter: samrat basak is a hydrologist by training and researches d solutions. india started using more agricultural chemicals during the green revolution in the 1960s. crop production expanded and significantly reduced famine. punjab started supplying the country, and later the world, with rice, but at the expense of its groundwater. there are now policies in place to improve the situation, but the water table hasn't recovered. meanwhile, local people's wells are running dry. and what do you do then? well... you drill a deeper well. samrat: the challenge is that everyone

may not have to have the right affordability to drill deeper every time to access groundwater. in fact, in su cases, people are depending on the external sources of water. of course, those water sources are far more costly than the water that is supplied by the government. reporter: on average, people with less ney spend a higher percentage of their income on water. a minimum wage worker in the u.k. spends 0.1% of their income on safe water. in india, the country with the largest number of people lacking safe water, a low-income person spends 17% of their household income on water. in madagascar, purchased water sucks up 45% of a low wage worker's income. water scarcity creates a market. like for private water providers, who might take over when governments fail to provide clean water. susanne: this might have positive

short-term effects because if the company wants to make money, it's going to make sure that the water is clean, provided on time regularly and so on, because that's e way they make money. reporter: as clean water becomes scarcer, these companies' services are more in demand. and the more business they get, the more investors earn. but privatizing isn't always the way to go. in many cases, it doesn't live up to expectations. paris, france, and manila in the philippines actually re-municipalized their water after privatizing it. that's because in most cases, privatized water is more expensive. and then there's the bottled water industry, which is worth almost three billion u.s. dollars, and expected to grow by around 7 percent per year. major players in the market include coca-cola and nestle, whh have been accused of both causing, and profiting from, water scarcity. so is there any way to ensure more people have safe, affordable, available water?

cess. bo repairingroken orre is damaged pis and buding newove connections, as well as wastewater recycling facilities. another direct way is to reduce meat consumption. it takes around 15,000 liters of water to produce one kilogram of beef, and the vast majority of our freshwater feeds industrial agriculture. going further, starting a process of de-commissioning dams and letting watershed ecosystems regenerate helps tackle the root of the problem. another push is to give nature rights in the courtroom. this would mean people could bring court cases on behalf of rivers, for example, against their polluters. the yurok tribe established rights of nature for the klamath river in 2019. still, the main problems remain -- much of the planet's freshwater is unsustainably managed, and climatehange ans there'less for us to use. but changg our dis and reoring ouecosystems c

make a difference. host: a sustainable use of water would help billions of people around the world. in many regions, people have no access to clean drinking water. in one village on the indonesian island of java, our reporter met someone who has poured a lot of energy into changing that. reporter: here in bunder, a llage in indonesia, it's harvesting time. when the heavy showers start to fall during the rainy season, bunder is ready. almost everyone collects as much as water as they can. prasetyo widi stores the rain in a large tank. he sometimes collects as much as 100,000 liters, which can last for up to a year. and the quality of the water is good. his family uses it to wash, cook, and even drink, which isn't true of everyone.

some think rain water isn't good enough for that. prasetyo: when visitors come or friends from the city, we have to tell them, "sorry, it's rainwater." we often worry that they won't drink it then. once they know it's rainwater they usually don't drink it, or they'll only take a little. reporter: instead, many indonesians buy bottled water. but in bunder that's no longer necessary. most here now disinfect their own water with electrolysis. an electric current is passed through the water which causes a chemical reaction that kills microbes and increases the ph value, and with it, the water quality. it was pastor romo kirjito who taught them how to do it. he's turned bunder into a "rainwater community," of which there are now 80

across the country. pastor kirjito: people used to complain about the rain because they got wet in it. now they're happy when they see the rain coming down. their attitude is changing. the villagers can save more money now. they don't have to buy drinking water anymore. they just have to collect and treat it. reporter: for pastor kirjito, water is the source of all life -- life's very essence. he spent years experimenting in his small laboratory, looking for a simple method to improve rainwater quality. his aim from the start was to make sure everyone had direct access to free drinking water. in recent years the control over potable water has passed into the hands of private companies with the support of the government. privatization has meant that many indonesians now have to buy their drinking water. pastor kirjito: independent access to drinking water is a global challenge. who can guarantee anyone an

honest drinking water industry. reporter: but there are other reasons to harvest rainwater in indonesia. there are few fresh water sources near bunder, which is close to the volcano mount merapi. sand quarrying also affects the water quality because it can increase erosion which in turn damages river beds. that's why experts encourage the practice of harvesting rainwater. dr. maryono: we know that the potential of water, of drinking wat in indonesia has been abandoned. about 2,000 to 4,000 millimeters a year fall. traditionally a lot of people in indonesia already used rainwater. because of new technology they left rainwater technology behind. we will bring the people back tonderstand, to develop the technology for rainwater harvesting. reporter: hydrologist agus maryono says storing rainwater is one way of

getting through extended droughts. the advantages of rainwater harvesting and treatment aren't lost people in the cities either. kanti janis collects rainwater on her roof. as a lawyer, she often takes up the cause of the rural population and the environment. for her drinking rainwater is also a question of ethics. a lot of the water that's bottled comes from rural springs. kanti: these people who live in the village should be able to get their water for free. but because most of the springs have been privatized, people must buy the water. there is something wrong about it, and i don't want to be part of it. reporter: more and more indonesians agree. the government is also having a change of heart and has begun

to sponsor rainwater projects. what bunder is doing could one day be common practice all across the country. using resources wisely. prasetyo: now i'm really proud to offer it to people, and to say to them, "come on, taste this, it's electrolytically treated rainwater." reporter: pastor romo kirjito is pleased that the many training courses and discussions have changed things in the village. pastor kirjito: people should love water. treasuring it, being aware of it, treating it creatively is all part of loving water. and when we love something we have a positive attitude towards it. it doesn't matter if it's rainwater or comes from a well, we should value it. reporter: valuing water would certainly

go a long way towards ensuring that fure generaons in bunder and other indonesian villages will have access to a healthy water supply. host: there are more than 30 mega cities on our planet, each with more than 10 million residents. and their number is rising. by 2030, around 60% of the global population will likely live in cities. but as urban areas get bigger, their infrastructure is struggling to keep up. new development projects in egypt's capital cairo are ignoring the needs of local residents. reporter: his home is cairo's necropolis, which locals call the city of the dead. what look like small houses are actually old mausoleums. ramy grew up here. affordable housing is scarce in the egyptian capital. over the years, thousands of the city's poor moved here. there are no public utilities, and ramy has to provide his own electricity and water.

but that's not a problem -- he loves his neighborhood and his home. ramy: i was born and raised here. if i had to move away, that would be no life for me. reporter: but time is running out. a new highway is scheduled for construction. cairo is bursting at the seams, traffic is chaotic and congested. bulldozers have already razed part of the cemetary, and new roads and bridges are springing up. many people who still live here face eviction. ramy can still walk to work, a few minutes from his house. he repairs old cars for a living. ramy: it hasn't happened yet. but if we are evicted and have to move, it will be very expensive for me.

every trip here and back would cost me my daily wage. reporter: just across the street lies the new national museum of egyptian civilization, which authorities hope will draw tourists here. but local residents see no benefit in it. environmental lawyer ahmed el-saidy says it's another example of planning by decree, which rides roughshod over the poorest in the city. ahmed: the egyptian constitution always talks about sustainable development -- meaning development that takes into account all aspects of life, including social, economic, environmental and archaeological development. but when there are no public hearings for proposed projects, that affects sustainability and it doesn't win over local residents. reporter: more and more historic buildings are vanishing from cairo's cityscape to make way for highways and new apartments.

architect hany el-fekky is in charge of the latest initiative to relieve the traffic gridlock in the area near the cemetery. hany: building this new highway is very important. otherwise the traffic here has cars creeping along at five kilometers an hour. that's a waste of time, and people can't get to work. and it's a waste of energy, of gasoline and diesel, so it creates a lot of pollution. reporter: paved roads, sturdier houses, electricity and running water. ramy would like all that too, but not at the cost of moving away. ramy: i like my neighborhood. my friends are here, my relatives, siblings, everything. reporter: ramy knows every nook and cranny here. but soon he'll probably have to find a new home, a long way from the city of the dead.

host: and that's all from us at "global 3000" this week. thank you for watching. don't forget to drop us a line with your feedback -- global3000@dw.com. you can find us on facebook too -- dw global ideas. see you next week. take care! [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

berlin. the west has condemned a pro-russian court for sentencing three foreign fighters to death. also coming up tonight, ukraine says that russia's assault in the east is killing as many as

two hundred ukrainian soldiers every