For the plans ah billions of late as of Drinking Water flush away our waist every day. Huge drain and Sewage Systems and needed to clean it. Is our giant purifier without these facilities, the stench would be unbearable and disease would spread janice, i change 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. Golly susie let who sewage holds everything that makes up our lives. 0 to lives 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, research is compare the wastewater 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, citizenship sewage, dangerous, valuable, and rich in information ah, moon. Paris 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 canals stretch that 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 rou. Slow. This jojo. So just my name is olivia bruce login on the laptop, director of ca. Yep. 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, was in san jose. Well, every day, equity, 365 days. Yet we have to sample the raw sewage of the inflow of the plan and the treated sewage of the out classroom is 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 leander deloney a dont go, we then analyzed the samples in the lab as required by law is entities excellent. M on there found a little while 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 waste water. Ah, its each month on been the. Im fredericks each month department, head of Sewage Treatment plant analysis. My department monitors what goes into the plant, ryan, 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 chemist 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 isis. Lighter is the same thing happening in paris and berlin. Here we would think so because we have domestic waste water or what i, flushed and the toilet. And so today was to you, im 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 extra from residues of medicines, industrial chemicals, drugs and such can be quite different as kindergarten to shows fun, said this is hilda vieira. Its hard to know what to expect from comparing berlin and parish me pores for the classic parameters, nitrogen, phosphorus, and chemical oxygen. Oh, i would expect the littles to be quite similar on the width already shows se juvenile a bucket assures on put it might be different from micro pollutants. Early me here we my find difference is related to eating. Hobbies and Care Products used to value motel to suave see each man and ru 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 wife 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, when 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 lock 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 itself is one of them. He works for the paris waterworks and monitors the drinking and waste water for pathogens. Richie, this is lucy po oh, gal de la la puzzles do monitoring wastewater for pathogens. Is nothing new voices, but what is new is connecting these measurements in waste water to the health of the general population. Ah, it doesnt entail directly producer in 2015 you had said proved this connection for the 1st time in gastro intestinal viruses. Sick people excrete part goals 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 is 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 through its air 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 wastewater 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 all of sess sequel pretty that its quite complicated to get a perfectly representative sample of whats in circulation yet because the waste water flows, i saw a huge denay for corn for the shop. Ah, 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 reach the Treatment Plants, the samples that the analysts finally take a highly diluted. And thus also contain few of irises using a computer algorithm. Vert say i 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 sets can see if infections are increasing or decreasing. Fog wander minerva with a few of soviet the end of june 2020, even before hospital numbers increased. We were able to observe an increased by willard in the spiritual mob, especially for that is the force which unfortunately foretold the 2nd wave that was to come after lecount 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, faces 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 home. 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 su as an 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, have your hunger alarm the guest . The alarm went off here. However, some one went into a building and open the door of 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 many ways. Via von jana, yvonne, 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 things unfun eye upon woods by it indeed of boasting mit good listen van couldnt the 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. Limited will washed away from a construction site and a rainstorm stocking, likeness. 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 effort. On inventing 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 yearbook 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 handles the here come, our consumer wont be but in vague to supply, but he can is that soon . The small fiver cloth may seem harmless. But going through the pump and sewage system cleaning cloths and bits of thread get tangled. An unbidden global. Weve calculated that this extra cleaning costs, the water companys almost 1000000. 00 euros per year. First item, you an oil up or yacht sous . Its the cost that diesel, susan, i dont mean normal cleaning. Im doing it. I mean, the extra work created by, for example, isnt the tangled mass of cleaning towels. Its susan the, somebodys beauty thats often gleneagles to of my, of, ah, paris, to 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 suppose, and 2nd largest in the world, is in a share north of paris. With you through the only georgia Oliver Morgan saw 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 Sewage Treatment plan in the world news you did process is the waste water of around as 5000000. 00 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, the screens filter cools waste by the ton from fibers toilet paper and bottles, the cigarette butts. But what would you measures gotten vannador . Ha ha, we remove one full dumpster or cigarette butts. Could dan here saw anthonys arsenal. Jaw them . I think after that also reducing the finest screening to get out even smaller trash division. 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 that say he Climate Change is indeed an issue for us biondi talking. 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 to all the sewage of both parisians and berliners. 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 . Civil russian got bows. Were there any surprises in our sample . Not relays i, it was all within a range that we would expect fellowship. But what was interesting is that we have completely Different Levels compared to the power sample cuz i would not have thought that is about oh, other levels. In fact, all the substance groups studied are about twice as high in berlin as they are in paris. See 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 use is around 110 late as of Drinking Water per day. A parisian uses 122100 and 50 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 dorf Treatment Plant in berlin is working on this challenge. Plant boss, me sheil kemp, shows how it could be done ah, it doesnt here use your kettle sewage sludge is bubbling in this oversize pot. Its heated to 80 degrees celsius and then mixed with magnesium chloride. O. Darmesh 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 hes a father, then. 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 trade particle analysis . Thomas napa and nicholas coca analyzed the waste water of the 2 large cities for more than 80 substances has decides drug residues, both medicinal and elicit as well as other