For the plant. Ah billions of late as of Drinking Water flush away our waist every day. Huge drain and Sewage Systems and needed to clean it. Oh is our giant purifier without these facilities, the stench would be unbearable and disease would spread. Janice hygiene is the top priority. We can get sick. Sewage is also very wasteful and harmful to the environment. Recycling nutrients and removing toxins is very difficult. Besides, we have to get past using water is a transport media. Its far too precious for that one. And this murky medium is much more than that. Its also a source of hidden information. Dolly zoe z o at hulu. Sewage holds everything that makes up our lives. You do love visual. And a Fascinating Research subject. When i was 6 years old, i always knew i wanted to be a scientist. For the 1st time, for this documentary, researchers compare the waste water of 2 capitals in detail. Do berlin is lived differently from parisians. The sphere of them, i would not have thought that it would be so different compared to paris. The fetish, mister dr. Sewage, dangerous, valuable, and rich in information. A parents in the dazzling evening sun passes by along the sin, have no idea of the complex and intricate world beneath their feet. Deep below the city canal stretch the 2600 kilometers, almost the distance to st. Petersburg. These constantly flowing and somewhat pungent, well, these part of every day life for waste water analyst olivia ru, slow this field of yellow. So just you know, my name is olivia bruce logo on the laptop, director of seattle. The greats of paris, sanitation, Authority Credit we collect and clean the wastewater in paris. I was in caea purifies parisians. Waste every day, 2400000000 liters of dirty water around 1000 olympic swimming pools. Ru slow extracts a small part of it, for his analysis to his room. It was also somethings wrong. Bell every day for the 365 days he yet did. We have the sample, the raw sewage of the inflow of the plans and the treated sewage of the out classroom. Is it fair to plenty on saturdays and sundays. We call the samples and processed them on monday. And so we get results for every day of the actual did any a dont go. We then analyzed the samples in the law as required by law is entities external de mondeo ballard, iowa. But the samples taken on this day have a very special purpose which reveals itself 1000 kilometers to the northeast at the gates of berlin. Because at the vast mans doff Sewage Treatment plant there, a very similar scene is taking place at the same time. He had 2 a couple of analysts sample wastewater. Ah, its each month on been the. Im fredericks each man, department, head of Sewage Treatment plant analysis. My department monitors what goes into the plant i and how the plant is running. What comes out of the plans come on and what can be safely released back into the water owners shooting but what are the chemists looking for in the waste water . For the 1st time, they want to compare the sewage of the 2 european capitals in detail. The samples are tested for well over 80 substances. Proceed to isolation is the same thing happening in paris and berlin. Here we would think so because we have domestic waste water. I what i flushed down the toilet. And so today was to you, im from spot paris may have different industrial influences than waiters in its interesting to see what the people actually consume when it comes to micro pollutants extend from residues of medicines, industrial chemicals, drugs and such can be quite different as kind of goes into shows, fun said this is still the other, its hard to know what to expect from comparing berlin and parish made pores for the classic parameters of nitrogen, phosphorus, and chemical oxygen. Oh, i would expect the littles to be quite similar on the width already shows. Se juveniles of bucket assures compress that it might be different from micro pollutants. Early me here we my find difference is related to eating hobbies and care products. Usually, motel de swa, c, h mon, andrew slow will examine the dirty water closely in the coming weeks there supported by one of the worlds leading waste water analysis institute. The institute for Analytical Research at the Fresenius University of applied sciences in each dine lab director thomas, can epa will personally examine the samples for trace components. Ah, yeah, i mean its got slave lashmar come and weve just received 2 bottles. Silly one from paris and one from berlin wu dotted on. Weve had a good look at that and are of course, very excited to see what our examination and the subsequent analysis will bring to light on the analysis will take 2 weeks. Will the researches find differences . If so, would this mean that parisians live differently or are exposed to different chemicals and consume different substances than berlins . Ah, a recent example shows how rich waste water is in information to curb the corona, virus shops, restaurants, and Public Institutions closed all over europe. In spring 2020 governments imposed locked downs but still the hospitals were overwhelmed. The uncertainty was great. How many people were actually infected . How many unreported cases were their research has worked feverishly to bridge the gap. See now knowledge french verola just sebastian view. It says, is one of them. He works for the paris waterworks and monitors the drinking and waste water for pathogens. Which should be the suzy poorer. All gal de la la la peasants, do monitoring, waste water for pathogens is nothing new voices. But what is new is connecting these measurements in waste water to the health of the general population law. They let us any tailed up a philosopher. In 2015 who had sir proved this connection for the 1st time in gastro intestinal viruses. Sick people excrete part of pathogens in their feces. From there they enter the sewage system and end up in the water Treatment Plants. Good, thick and show that the number of virus particles in waste water is related to the number of sick people in the population. The more particles in the sewage, the more sick people there are but hes that also true with corona viruses, all the pathogens, even detectable in waste water. And if so, can we predict how quickly corona will spread in february 2028th of it, sir, and his team, one of the 1st Research Groups world wide, began to systematically search the parents cesspool. For sauce c o v to twice a week, they sampled waste water at the inlets of 6 parisians, Sewage Treatment plants, 11 more treatment plans from the metropolitan area would also like to be added if you them offset sequel p g that its quite complicated to get a perfectly representative sample of whats in circulation yet because the waste water flows are so huge holden, a full coin for to show the analysts did in fact find the corona virus in the waste water. But the amount fluctuated greatly from week to week. Why . If its air and his team investigated and hit upon an astonishing explanation. When it rains a lot, the rain mixes with the waste water in the sewage system. Large quantities of water reached the Treatment Plants, the samples that the analysts finally take a highly diluted. And thus also contain few of irises using a computer algorithm, vote se came to grips with this distortion. Now the waste water data tell him how wide spread the corona virus really is in the population. But thats not all even earlier than the Health Authorities who get their information from the hospitals. Food set can see if infections are increasing or decreasing. Fossil under minerva, when the fuel cell via the end of june 2020, even before hospital numbers increased. We were able to serve an increased by willard in the spiritual mob, especially for that is the force which unfortunately foretold the 2nd wave that was to come to my good sewage. As an Early Warning system for corona, it works of itself. The stinky sludge is much more than just waste. Its also a source of valuable information. Looking back into history, sewage has not been around for very long. In the middle ages, theses ended up in latrines, chamber pots, cesspits, or simply in the gossip. Cities often disposed of their waste in nearby bodies of water pathogens repeatedly got into the Drinking Water or food and spread. The result was disease and death. Blue london introduced the 1st comprehensive sewage system in 18. 59, many other european and American Cities followed suit. Ah, low lying chicago even raised parts of its city area, including huge buildings by several meters to allow the feces to flow away. At 1st, the cities only built Sewage Systems to discharge their untreated sewage into rivers and lakes. But they became more and more filthy, killing the animals that lived there. Soon the 1st Sewage Treatment plants were built to treat human waste before releasing it into the environment. The system of suicide and treatment plans revolutionized health safety. But it also brings a few disadvantages. Every day, the worlds toilets use 6 times as much Drinking Water as the needs of the entire african continent. Not only fielding the system, but maintaining it comes with enormous costs. Berlins more than 9600 kilometer long sewage system is monitored here from this control station. More than 300 palms transport the waste water of 3600000 people to Treatment Plants. If anything goes wrong and alarm sounds in the control room, ah, ah, ah, dr. Young in alarm, the guess the alarm went off here. However, some one went into a building and open the door to the team. From the control center investigates, an employee had entered a pumping station without checking in. Oh, clear them apart from unauthorized access. The alarm is usually triggered by blockages. Its marteen cheap lakes job to clear them. Viani gar law in menu. By way via von jana vocal. We would like to clean the suction chamber. Thanks, lucille, i thought by the sewage arrives in the suction chamber before the pumps move it on to the Treatment Plant. But all kinds of waste collect in the damp chamber does finger unfun eye upon woods by it. Indeed, of bolster and mit good listen van. Couldnt since anything from a number that gets carried away from construction sites to think well we once had canal pipes 3 meters longings. Its a 60 centimeters in diameter limit that will washed away from a construction site in a rainstorm. Stocking agnes. Ready ah, heavy rains can wash anything, not properly secured down into the sewage system. But the feces themselves also require a great deal of cleaning if it hadnt been, the walls usually collect a bit of turns. But also quite a lot of grease when we hose off the fat so that it doesnt build up too much, you got wet wipes, cent, fiber cloths which do not belong in the sewage system or a particular challenge. Is kind of father to mock out. Im in tom last i here come our enrollment, wont you . But in vague disappointment can, is that soon . The small fiver cloth may seem harmless. But going through the pomp and sewage system cleaning cloths and bits of thread get tangled. An unbidden globe, and weve calculated that this extra cleaning costs, the water companys almost 1000000. 00 euros per year. Faster in m. U. An oil up or yacht sous. Its the cost that diesel to that i dont mean normal cleaning. Im doing it. I mean, the extra work created by, for example, isnt the tangled mass of cleaning towels. Yes. Shoes if the, some by spirit sweetie. But soft millennials teacher of my, of, ah, paris 2 has to work to keep the canals from clogging. A tried and true method is the so called battle van a several me to long boat that workers lower into the canals and push in front of them like a plow. Experts estimate that renewing the sewage system in germany alone will cost around 12500000000. 00 euros per year. In the coming decades, by comparison, the countries spent a total of 14200000000 euros on Road Construction in 2020. And the su, as in pumps are only the 1st part of the system the largest Sewage Treatment plant in europe and supposed 2nd largest in the world is in a share north of paris. With you through the only bellagio. Olivers war gonzalez soon did that as this is the purification giant mold, we often call it that it inside the flow rate and the amount of pollution removed. Its one of the most im forcing storage treatment plan up in the world. News you did process is the waste water of around as 5000000 inhabitants go about 1500000 cubic meters per day in dry weather like today, exhausted by thats really a lot of people go in fact, a share basically works like any other Sewage Treatment plant in the world, but on a much larger scale. Hidden in these boxes, screens filter cools waste by the ton from fibers toilet paper and bottles, the cigarette butts. Bob wallach. You may have gotten bene. Doormen. Ha ha. We removed one full dumpster of cigarette butts. Could dan here saw anthonys arsenal, jaw them . I think after that also we do some, a fine, a screening to get out even smaller trash physician. He thought chiseled profile, countless basin, separate grease and sand in the next step, primarily from food scraps all what rainwater washes up. After that, the actual treatment begins in so cold activated sludge tanks, the sewage is enriched with oxygen. The micro organisms that break down the nutrients in the sludge need, this oxygen to live. The work of microorganisms creates in broad terms, to products, purified, water, which can flow off into the environment. And biomass, which sinks to the bottom of the basin consisting largely of the bacteria that have consumed the nutrients but the oxygen supply in particular is expensive. Of all the public facilities in a city, Sewage Treatment plan consumed the most energy on average. Ah, the system is also vulnerable to the effects of Climate Change. During drought and dry spells, the water gets muddy and the plans dont function as well. And during heavy rainfall, the treatment basins flood. In extreme cases, the sewage escapes into the environment untreated. It came up under his films thats i think in Climate Change is indeed an issue for us beandee talk. If we have both heavy rainfall on one side gate and dry spells on the other in here, the money is not enough. We also need ideas. Surely, inventions, klein v and certainly more awareness light and a different way of handling water as a resource because those of us at, at so the Current System needs to be changed and expanded to continue to clean reliably in the future. In the meantime, the sewage plant analysts have been hard at work in the labs. Now the results of the extensive tests. Irene and all i look on the loo knob on here, we have the analysis report as you took, the Main Findings is not available at well. The sewage of both parisians and berlin is, looks pretty similar. Ah, the largest chair of the one late as sample is of course water. Second is this. So cold calls matter a mix of a wide variety of materials. Sand from the streets, bio mass from feces and so on. In the 3rd major group, the scientists find carbon, phosphorus, and nitrogen, excrete it through urine and sees some of which are already dissolved in the water. Ah, but are there any differences between berlin and paris . Subaru, ocean got bows. Were there any surprises in our sample . Not really thought it was all within a range that we would expect published. But what was interesting is that we have completely Different Levels compared to the power sample cuz i would not have thought that the stuff i other levels. In fact, all the substance groups studied are about twice as high in berlin as they are in paris. Each month and ru slow are amazed by the vast difference. They had not expected, such large deviations. But why, of the levels in paris . Only half as high . Is it the water consumption for showering cooking and toilet flushing . A berlin i uses around 110. 00 late as of Drinking Water per day. A parisian use is 120 to 150 late is a little more, but too little for such a difference. The reason probably has to do with paris is 150 year old. So a system, its crumbling in many places. Large amounts of groundwater as well as run off from construction sites and various cleaning flow into it. So its not a case of parisians and berlin is ex, greeting different amounts of nutrients. In the Current System, micro organisms break down a large part of the nutrients in the waste water, which are found in the bio mass at the bottom of the tanks. The sludge is then usually burned afterwards to produce heat and electricity. The nutrients burn up as well or on the guarded with the ash. Ah, this is particularly disastrous in the case of phosphorus, an increasingly scarce rule element. Experts estimate that the natural deposits from moroccan chinese and american mines will only last for another 50 to 100 years but can phosphorus not be recovered from sewage . The vast months doth Treatment Plant in berlin is working on this challenge. Plant boss, me sheil kemp, shows how it could be done with by them. Hey, use your kettle sewage sludge is bubbling in this oversized pot. Its heated to 80 degrees celsius and then mixed with magnesium chloride. O daughters of hair done and then magnesium, ammonium, phosphate comes out. Id always magnesium, ammonium, phosphate forms, and settles on the boiler floor when dry. Its a gray powder containing about 10 percent of the phosphorus from the sewage. Sludge is a father that these phosphates have been specially precipitated here and can now be used as fertilizer. No bad. Unfortunately producing the fertilizer is still too expensive to be competitive. Back to the sewage comparison. What about the trace particle analysis . Thomas napa and nicholas cooker analyzed the waste water of the 2 large cities for more than 80 substances has to sides drug residues, both medicinal and elicit as well as other chemicals from urban areas were the criteria and what were the results via hm rushed, were written which mats were the policy that we found quite high levels of the paint color. Paracetamol in. The paras Treatment Plant inflow around point one, milligrams per liter. Home crude, which is very unusual on govern dish between paris and berlin. Sewage paracetamol is present in a ratio of 3. 00 to 1. 00. Quite the difference. Ah, its a one time sample. So the results could be pure chance. Only regular measurements over several weeks would clarify where the paracetamol use is actually higher in paris. Still, thomas kappa, has a suspicion. Ah. Does it sat on nick . This is thats 9 me too big of an informal young endorsement for sure. I was lucius. It may be because this medicine is only available like this at pharmacies in germany and, and is just an over the counter drug in paris. Escape is he that would have to be verified them, o m, him or perhaps because different painkillers are preferred and different populations were named. But no class of substances better illustrates the subtle ways in which residues tale of urban affairs. Then narcotics. Here analysts find a rich assortment of drugs are in good, clean, found hardly any difference in cocaine concentrations between the lynn and paris on in berlin. However, we measured a much higher concentration of amphetamines. Afield in paris, we were unable to detect any amphetamines and much lower concentrations of methamphetamines and m. Dna causing eloquence and consume. Cocaine is used in both cities, not so with ecstasy and speed. Berlin is can see him more of these than parisians. This is confirmed by a europe wide study comparing urban and municipal wastewater residues. In this study, berlin is a far ahead of parisians, in ecstasy, consumption surpassed only by zurich, utrecht and amsterdam. Ah, ah, how much sewage reveals is shown by a Research Project can epa and cook a, a working on with the federal criminal police office. The project same is to track down drug and explosives, laboratories. Actually, the research is confidential, but for this documentary, the scientists opened the lab doors was not as of those of the students on why as wastewater so compelling this lessons or its directional and understood. If something enters the sewage system, at any point, i can predict when and where it could be found was indulged in once it opens on cocaine speed, met synthetic drugs cant simply be picked from the tree, but have to be cooked in the lab. These produces large amounts of chemical waste, a lucon, history of monfort, or mean in illegal. Amphetamine production about 30 kilograms of waste are generated to produce one kilogram of drugs from tons of corrosive. And sometimes highly toxic liquids are left behind as waste in the production of synthetic drugs. Drunk cooks often stole them near their labs and later move on to another location. All they simply pull them into the nearest body of water. Time and again, they also pull the dangerous brew into the sewage system. What can the criminals be caught in the act . To find out the chemists are installing a highly complex, measuring machine at a Sewage Treatment plant in hesser cook and connect that develops the device themselves. It works ultimately and can detect a large number of tray substances in real time. The idea, if a suspicious substance reaches the treatment planned inflow, it automatically triggers an alarm. In numerous experiments, the research is test, how reliable the machine is at the inflow, but also many kilometers away. They pull chemicals from drug production into the sewage system and then check whether the device detects the substances. And indeed, despite tiny quantities and long distances, it succeeds with this knowledge, investigators can now work their way up from sewer in flow to sewage in flood sampling everywhere. Eventually reaching the hidden lab, the system is still in the pilot phase. So well, europe, police soon be preemptively and comprehensively scanning waste water for suspicious substances. This Investment Funds and setting up Sensor Networks is of course a bit of science fiction. And then we have to ask if this is what we want as a society woods. Ah, the eva labs in switzerland, one of the largest Water Research institutes in the world. Here engineer kite ood, it examines a substance that disgusts many human urine. O, as, as the goal is to recover the nutrients from the urine. Those move all the nutrients, not just nitrogen, and not just phosphorus for to recycle all the ingredients. However, it needs the urine in its pure form, not mixed with feces and other waste. Ah, a unique Research Building shows that this is not so difficult. The recently opened water hub, the modern building houses, apartments, offices, and conference rooms. Ah. But chi would at his clearly focused on something else. Ah, was its up to the to machine though in if you cant see it from the toilet it, but the urine is separated at the front of this when you sit down and painted, the urine flow slowly down the wall. The pheasant opening here and the year and flows into it. Shes when you flush afterwards, a fresh water actually flows over this opening ross and almost no water gets into this year. And im a kind of teapot effect. Most of the urine flows into the narrow opening below the bulge the torrent of water that flushes down the feces bubbles over the opening. Ah, the various waste waters then reach the basement via separate types. The shower and washing machine water is only slightly contaminated and is therefore cold light grey water. Heavy grey water comes from the dishwasher. For example, it contains fats and oils. So is dirtier. Black water transports the feces and yellow water. Urine on that is away in this, in that initial urine is pumped into this reactor here on the brown o me see here is bacteria. Ah, p contains large amounts of ammonium. Normally the substance gases into the air causing that unpleasant oda who dead bacteria though converted into ammonium nitrate. This means the urine no longer stinks, and more importantly, the nitrogen from the compound is retained. Would it then passes the bacterial mixture through an activated carbon filter to extract the drug residues denominated in constantly internal than solomon wound up far for during the former no strength, then you get this concentrated fertilizer. It has to be diluted 100. 00 to 1. 00. Before use, well theres and it looks like this. So brown, the series and now it doesnt smell like urine. Those. And this is a very safe process as its also safe, that the from federal department of economics has actually given us a fertilizer permit for this product looks not bad, but what about black water . Thats what Linda Estrada and her team are investigating. A few labs down now is t people like i, when i was 6 years old, i always knew i wanted to be a scientist said that obviously thats not true to make something useful out of the fecal water mixture. They swirl it in small Sample Containers and treat it with so called conditioners. A lot of people think of as what i put in my hair in the morning. And so they are chemicals that we add to the solution that can change the charge properties. So that adult particles can come together because because when theyre dispersed, theyre floating in the liquid, earth, dissolved the liquid, can we bring them together and then they can settle out and then we can remove them. So condition is ensure that the solids clumped together. But exactly the right amount of chemical is needed. If too little is used, the solids remain dissolved too much. And the stirring rod gums up as we see clearly in the experiment ah, ah, the separated faces can be processed into compost or burned as pellets strand. This sees the future in d centralized menu, a processing plants, instead of pumping waste water over long distances to treatment plans. It could be used locally. So if we can look at smaller scale systems that dont require Drinking Water to transport our waists, then we can treat closer to the source. We use less energy with more resource recovery. Arianna crowder is from the likeness institute of vegetable and ornamental crops in girls, barren south of berlin. I. Shes investigating a system that works without water is transport. The Research Team has set up dry toilets at several locations in the city. They also separate urine and feces. Using the tea pot effect, but do not use water to flush the faces an turn. La vandal, like her, a normal flushing toiler. Boy, inside a wall, weve got odd material. The scientists regularly collect the theses from a tank processing continues at the local landfill. Ah, ah, the straw and feces mixture is placed in a container which can be tightly sealed inside the bio mass begins to ferment reaching temperatures of up to 70 degrees celsius and killing pathogens and germs. Oh, ah, composting begin. 7 weeks later, crowns and baccha mix the disinfected feces with plant charcoal and minerals and turn it regularly. After 8 weeks, the menu is ready to stand here and who muster the hair. As andromeda, were producing a human fertilizer to be added to the soiled, often forget about its supposed to nourish the plans, and also to maintain the humans in the soil best. This is very important for long term loyal fertility, and wouldnt thats by place because humans enables the soil to store water and nutrients below the hotel. Now would miss blue in the future. At festivals, straight parties and construction sites. Dry toilets could replace chemical ones. But processing human waste in metropolitan areas like paris and berlin completely without water would be a radical change. Converting the old system is costly and for many people on attractive as each household would have to collect its own excrement, blue in paris, their 1st trying a new ultra filtration plant that cleans the waste water before it enters the sand. Ah, its of us fail though, said does it happens in the 2nd part where we installed 0. 035 micron ultra filtration membrane z, which is really very, very small. Cupertino base, a waste water Treatment Plants a to realize a grand dream in paris. At the 2024 olympics, the swimming competitions will be held in the sand directly in front of the eiffel tower. In berlin, the waste Water Treatment system is also being improved. Here an ozone treatment system and a new phosphorus filter, a being built by it is easy. Ng with our very tight water cycle. We have to think about future generations to wanting. Belindas want the spray to become a swimming area. The swimming competition that takes place regularly shows that already further along than in paris. This may also be because the decades berlin has been discharging waste water into nearby lakes, including take a lake in summer, countless people use the lake. So the Water Quality has to be right. Berlin achieves this. We the natural help. The lake wood has seeps into the sandy soil. Over many decades. In the process, the water is cleaned and gradually flows into the ground, water pumped up. Its good enough to drink nature has strong cleansing power, but it has its limits. The challenge is to find a finely balanced system that protects the environment and at the same time in shows that the treasures of wastewater a not last is only 10 years old, but all ready at the top of this deluge. Curious seed is his talent on the piano has put him at the top of a list of the worlds 100 brightest child prodigy. The tiny great pianist fills concert halls most still managing to be just to kid. You ro, max in 30 minutes, d, w. O these places are smashing the records, stepped into a bold adventure. Its the treasure map for modern globetrotters. Discover some of you up to record breaking sites on google back youtube and now also in book form, music 50 years ago. The information gathering of p sent cooperation becomes the scene of a horrible tragedy. Arab terrors, armed with sub machine guns, went to the headquarters of the israeli team and immediately killed one man. And that this will be the last time. So in the night, theyre all gone out. I witnesses experienced the terrible events and this the world should not forget the long shadow of the 1970 to olympic massacre. Stuart september, 3rd on d. W. Ah ah, this is dw news lie from berlin, pakistans Prime Minister appeals for International Aid of the devastating flooding. The country struggling to get help for thousands of people displaced by historic water levels that have now claimed close to a 1000 nights and burning off gas