♪ host: welcome to "global 3000." loved and fought over. in mexico, the mafia and farmers are embroiled in a war over limes. won and yet lost? the tough water deal between south africa and lesotho. but first -- bought and then thrown away. the chilean desert is a dumping ground for old clothes.

♪ cheap, easy to buy, worn briefly or not all, then thrown away. this kind of consumption creates mountains of textile waste. but it's actively encouraged by the fast fashion industry. some producers boast up to 24 different collections per year. since 2000, global clothing production has doubled every year to an annual total of 100 billion items. the fashion industry also emits more than 1.2 billion tons of co2 per year, more than global air and ship travel combined. and yet 4.3 million tons of cast-off clothing land in the trash or even far away in the chilean desert. ♪ reporter: we're in the atacama desert in northern chile. this is where the global fashion industry's discarded clothing ends up. locals are taking us to the dumpsite, past informal settlements where mainly

migrant workers live in makeshift huts without electricity. we drive past piles of used tires and then mountains of discarded cheap clothing. the stench of chemical vapours hangs in the air. freddy is a local man. he's angry about the desert landfills, but he's also aware that they give people an income. freddy: some people come here to find clothes for themselves or to sell at secondhand markets in town. there's no-one here at the moment because some of the waste was incinerated recently. reporter: manuela olivos is in charge here. she collects unsold clothing and brings it all here.

manuela: the clothes come from all over the world. sometimes they come from local shops and warehouses. i go there and ask if they have any stuff they can give me. reporter: manuela olivos decides who can help themelves to the piles of discarded textiles. manuela: i get money from people who come here looking for clothes either for themselves or to sell on. that's my livelihood. reporter: manuela olivos lives in a wooden hut on the dumpsite. she and her husband get a state pension worth the equivalent of 115 euros a month. the money she makes here is much-needed extra income. >> no one takes pity on us. i keep chickens and ducks, and

i grow some plants. reporter: in nearby alto hospicio, authorities see the mountains of used clothes as a nuisance, but the environmental officer says he's powerless to do anything about it. edgar: the business with used clothing is highly lucrative for dealers in the free trade zone of iquique who import secondhand textiles. there are 53 of these companies and their business model is very profitable, but only for them. it's detrimental to the wider community. reporter: we head to iquique, the provincial capital, sandwiched between the desert and the pacific. this used to be a depressed region, until a container port was built here and the free trade zone "zofri" created. companies operating here enjoy tax exemptions, including

apparel importers. unsold and used clothes from around the world, including germany, are partly sold to buyers in the region, but an estimated 40% ends up in landfill sites. naya: it depends on what's in the containers. some of it is in good condition. but sometimes we have to throw low-quality textiles in the dump. reporter: chile is south america's main importer of used clothing. in neighboring countries, it's illegal or restricted. the result is the vast dumping ground in the desert. we meet dario blanco, head of the iquique free trade zone users assication. he says the situation is improving. dario: what i can say is that the clothing import companies want to help things improve. they want to address the negative impact of their business model.

the situation is definitely going to change. reporter: most of the clothing is made of synthetic fabrics and takes years to biodegrade. this family sifting through the piles of used clothes are refugees from venezuela. they're looking for clothes they can wear, and also anything they can sell. sofia: my two children and i came through the desert. we had to leave behind our suitcases containing all our clothes, or we would never have made it. i've used up all my savings. reporter: everywhere we go, we see refugees who have traveled through the desert. despite the scorching midday sun, this family wants to keep going until they reach iquique, where they hope to find work. the city is 200 kilometers away.

the family looks exhausted. andré: it's hard. it took us four days to get here from the border, twenty kilometers away. we're not making much progress. but we haven't lost hope. reporter: venezuelan refugees in chile often end up working for a pittance, including here in the landfill sites. this one is 12,0 kilometers from europe, but it doesn't take us long to find items that are clearly from germany. we find discarded videos and a phone book from bremen, and cotton socks that cost 4 euros, 49 cents. the mountain of clothing in the chilean desert is a symbol of the shocking hidden cost of the global fast fashion industry.

♪ host: small and made of plastic, sachets. in our web special, we chart the journey such a sachet makes from the origins of the raw materials it's made from, to its trashy fate. we find out why the number of sachets is growing, and why they're so lucrative for businesses, and so disastrous for our planet. find out more at dw.com/plastic. the small kingdom of lesotho, known as the roof of africa, is one of the world's highest-situated countries. as a enclave, it's entirely surrounded by south africa, and is largely economically dependent on its bigger neighbor. but lesotho has something very valuable for drought-plagued south africa -- water. increasingly, however, this provision of water for its neighbor is creating problems

for both local people and the ecosystem. reporter: lesotho is south africa's water tower. but the country and its environment pay a high price for it. mothusi: we didn't anticipate that the dams here in lesotho would bring the misery that it is bringing. mathabo: i see nothing of the better life that they promised us. if it were up to me, i would decide against building the dam. gerard: the need for water by south africa remains high and the source of such water remains the lesotho highlands water project. taole: we have been able to divert water to south africa but we are limited by the quality of our envionemnet.

matahbo: back when the children were growing up, this was a beautiful and peaceful village. we looked out for each other. nobody here went to bed hungry. but look what happens now. everyone mistrusts each other. it's just not the same anymore. reporter: phase two of the lesotho highlands water project started three years ago in mathabo raisi's village. one of five dams is to be built here, which will supply neighboring south africa with water. the entire village has been moved to another location. matahbo: the construction work hit us hard. they had promised us jobs. our children should earn something from those but instead they are out of work. while other people and south africans get the jobs, we go hungry. they also took our fields. reporter: the cornfields and grazing land

house construction workers. the dam has brought misery for residents, driving 8000 people from their homes. the water will flow to johannesburg, 400 kilometers away. for the 16 million people in the city and surrounding province, the dams are vital and already provide 60% of their water. since the project is financed with south african taxpayers' money, julius kleynhans has been monitoring it for a long time. he works for the organization outa, which monitors corruption and mismanagement. julius: urbanization is taking place and future development and the expansion of business needs more water. the problem is that we are only very limited to the water that we have in south africa. we don't have innovative technologies and circulated

infrastructure yet to recycle water. and currently we highly rely on the lesotho highlands phase two scheme to provide water and meet future demands. reporter: it is one of the largest infrastructural projects in africa, and supposed to be a benefit for both sides. south africa pays almost 70 million euros in royalties to lesotho every year. lesotho also generates electricity for its population. the local project manager of the lesotho highlands authority, gerard mokone, explains that in five years, the dam wall will be standing right here. 5000 hectares of land will then be flooded. gerard: as we are all aware, this kind of project would have social impacts and environmental impacts, and we as the project have a number of programs which have been discussed and agreed with the communities as ways

and means of mitigating against the loss of land and the loss of grazing areas and production land. reporter: mothusi sequhee heard exactly the same promises 24 years ago when the katse dam was completed. all other dams feed their water into this reservoir, from where it is piped to south africa. sequhee works for the seinoli legal center, which helps people at the lake with getting their promised compensations, like here in the village of mapeleng. mothusi: as everyone knows, you were severely impacted by the construction of the dam. your rights have been trampled on. we all know the reasons why the water in the springs don't flow here anymore.

>> we had decided to use the money to get our village connected to electcity. but the development authority has done nothing. we are sll waiting for power in mapeleng. >> they also promised us compensation for the loss of our homeland and the pain we had because of the resettlement. some people here got injured. but to this day we have not received anything. mothusi: the project was conceived by two undemocratic governments of the south africa apartheid regime and military regime in lesotho. those governments did not have mandate from the people.

there is a need for the review of this treaty. reporter: the project is also threatened by massive soil erosion. the construction of the dams, along with overgrazing and climate change mean that more and more soil is eroded by the rain and ends up in rivers as sediment. in many places, only bare rock remains. taole tesele is a consultant for a national project which aims to protect rivers. small walls are supposed slow down the rainwater running off this hillside in order to protect a wetland from erosion. they also remove invasive shrubs that would otherwise wipe out endemic plants. taole: with the current erosion, the life of such dams would be fairly compromised. the lifetime.

because in no time, they would be more full of sediment than water. so this would be lost investment, and therefore we depend largely on biodiversity -- the type of biodiversity that enables the infiltration of water. ♪ if we were to wait for ten more years, there will be a time when would simply not be able to produce anything and then we become a failed state. in my opinion, we are at the brink of saving this or letting it fall. ♪ host: limes are a popular ingredient in cold drinks.

the green fruits offer cool, delicious refreshment. and a lot of vitamins, too. 100 milliliters of lime juice contain 30 milligrams of vitamin c less an lemons, andbut still impressive.oo. mexico is the world's largest exporter of citrus fruits -- in 2020, it exported more than 800,000 tons of lemons and limes. now, however, the mafia is getting involved. reporter: as the evening descends over the yucatán peninsula, david medina gets out his single-barrel shotgun. he inherited the 20-gauge harrington from his grandfather. it may be an antique weapon, but it does the job. david: i need the gun to defend my limes from being stolen. i don't want to kill anyone. i just shoot into the air, and then they run away. reporter: a surge in lime prices has

turned his farm into a growing small fortune -- hence the night-time thieves. for them, a crate of limes means enough food for several days. david: they come here and fill up their rucksacks, sometimes in groups of five. and they take several crates-full -- about 5000 pesos worth. reporter: the equivalent of 230 euros -- losses that really add up. the 76 year-old sometimes stays out until dawn on the lookout for suspicious activity. david: i'll stay out for a little while longer. and we'll see if anything moves or if i hear something. reporter: a two-hour drive away, marcello avila patrols his family's orchards together with his father, brother, and nephew. thieves have struck here countless times, in the process

also destroying the next month's harvest. marcello: as they pack limes into their clothes, they tear at all trees around them. and in the morning, we see that the smaller limes have also fallen off. reporter: two episodes in mexico's growing plague of lime-crime, triggered by market price increases, leaving farmers fighting against thieves, and customers with high prices, which have risen three or four-fold since the end of 2021. mexicans eat an average of 18 kilos of the fruit per year, a staple food that's served with practically every dish. juan: in everything from stews to tacos, you need limes. isabel: normally we'd buy a kilo. but these days only a quarter-kilo, because prices have risen so much. reporter: but it's comic relief content on social media, with limes

depicted as green gold, as a cash alternative or a commodity transported in armored security vans, as engagement rings, or making people millionaires. behind the soaring prices there are several factors -- the climate, the season, and the state of michoacan. the land here ought to be covered in lime-green. but fighting cartels left farmers in the crossfire, forcing many of them to quit. hipólito chavez has decided to stand his ground, defying the criminals with his own vigilante group. he's the only farmer here willing to talk on camera. hipólito: the others are afraid of getting killed if they talk. reporter: everyone, he says, pays protection money one way or the other, whether for the harvests or their transportation. that gives the cartels a share of profits, while pushing up prices. anyone refusing to pay up is threatened, or worse. hipólito:

they kill traders and fix lime prices. they attack you and dictate how much you have to pay them. reporter: chavez is determined to carry on the struggle, come what may. hipólito: i lost one of my sons, and a lot of friends who'd fought alongside me. it's a pain that runs very deep. reporter: other farmers have already fled the violence, leaving behind tens of thousands of trees to wither away, with no one to harvest their fruit. and that gap in supply on the market is a further reason for the rise in prices. back in yucatan, the farmers at least don't have the cartels to worry about, just the petty lime thieves. local law enforcement provides support for the farmers' patrol squads. police chief nelson ava has

been analyzing the thieves' tactics. chief avila: what do they do? they don't come in through the main entrance. they cut themselves a path through here to gain access to the premises. reporter: he hopes prices will come down a little soon and that calm will be restored to the community. he currently catches five lime thieves a week, together with their haul. chief avila: this batch here is stolen goods, and the thieves won't say where they're from. so that means we don't know who to return them to. reporter: some of those apprehended are repeat offenders. but there's little the police can do, to the frustration of the farmers. martín: the quantity stolen by each individual is too small to charge them. so they're held in custody for 24 or 36 hours. some of them have to do some cleaning work somewhere before they're released.

reporter: this night has been a calm and quiet one for lime farmer david medina. he's summoned a shaman in order to keep it that way. together they make a sacrificial offering of herbs to the sacred deities. david: we do this because we have faith it will work, so that we're able to harvest our fruit. reporter: they also pray for the lime prices to stabilze, so that farmers like him can earn enough and sleep peacefully again. ♪ host: this week, our global teen comes from lebanon. ♪ nemeh: i started karate when i was 5 years old. honestly, i used to find it a bit boring, but my father continued encouraging me to go

to training. i participated in many international and regional competitions. ♪ my name is nemeh mohsin. i am 15-years-old and i live in tripoli, lebanon. ♪ my father is the manager of the programming department at a company called softwave, and is one of four partners of the company, and my mother is a french teacher and has a ph.d. ♪ many kids who are my age don't like going to school, but i like school. i get to hang out with my friends and benefit from the education. ♪ when i'm older, i want to be a lawyer, but as everything is heading toward technology, i'd like to be something in between a lawyer and a computer engineer. ♪

in europe, of course their lives are probably better, they have more freedom and more development. on the other hand, in some countries, like in africa, life is hard, and they struggle to get basic necessities. ♪ coronavirus is a global problem, and in my opinion, poverty is a social dilemma. it can lead to many things such as murder, drug abuse, and insecurity. hopefully, there can be a solution to poverty. ♪ host: and that's all from us at "global 3000" this week. thanks for joining us. and do send us your views on

the program -- we're at global3000@dw.com. and you can visit us on facebook, too -- dw global ideas. see you soon. take care. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

live from berlin. russia continues its brutal garage in ukraine, hitting kyiv and kherson. the city that they were he took two weeks ago, sustaining the heaviest bombing to date. authorities in uganda take steps to curb the spread of the ebola virus. curfews and travel bans are in place, in public institutions are closed. pl