Extreme Water: Life Between Drought and Deluge | FULL DOCUMENTARY

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Over the coming decades, more and more regions are expected to suffer serious droughts. Fresh water is becoming an increasingly rare commodity.

[00:00:19]The most extreme of all regions where water is already traded almost like gold is the Atakama desert in Chile. The center of the Atakama is regarded as the driest place on Earth.

[00:00:34]Some parts of this desert have never seen a single drop of water.

[00:00:45]Chile's main transportation artery cuts right through it. The Pan-American Highway that stretches 25,000 km from Alaska to Patagonia.

[00:00:58]For truck drivers with a clear conscience, this control station is a welcome respite.

[00:01:07]>> The police are controlling way bills, searching for contraband, and tracking the weather.

[00:01:19]Every morning, while the coolness of the night still lingers in the air, Victor Barrier, the officer in charge, turns to the weather station. It has only the most basic equipment, two thermometers.

[00:01:35]I've been here for 2 years and 3 months and have never seen rain. In the morning at around 8, 8:30, we record the lowest temperature and the highest at 8:30 in the evening. Occasionally we check the rain gauge too, but it never contains anything but dust.

[00:02:03]This is Kiyagua. Most likely the world's driest inhabited place. An oasis now turning into a ghost town. 800 people lived here once. Now it's down to about 120.

[00:02:23]The school building is far too big these days.

[00:02:29]School starts at 8:00 sharp.

[00:02:35]All that remains today is a single class containing 8 to 10 students at most.

[00:02:41]The class may be small, but it follows the old traditions.

[00:02:50]Just as in the days when Kiyagua was still bustling, students and teachers sing the national anthem together.

[00:02:59]>> Kiagua's inhabitants truly live in the middle of the desert. It's a 3 and 1 half hour drive to get to the next bigger city. Chile's capital, Santiago, is 1600 kilometers away.

[00:03:14]Despite their isolation, the students have access to more than just theoretical information about the broader world. Kiagua has, or rather used to have, valuable learning materials right at hand, a museum, excavation sites, and meteorite craters well worth seeing.

[00:03:33]>> But tourists ignore Kiagua despite its attractions. All because of its desperate lack of water. Kiagua's drinking water has always had to be transported in.

[00:03:47]Roberto Palapa is a water driver like his father before him.

[00:03:57]The water is transported from hundreds of kilometers away and stored in underground reservoirs.

[00:04:13]Though water for personal use, mainly drinking water, is extremely valuable, it's still available in limited quantities. Not so water for commercial and industrial use, which causes quite a few problems for the local fire brigade.

[00:04:32]>> Unfortunately, there is no fire engine anymore. It was lent out 3 years ago and now sits abandoned by the coast with a broken engine. No fire engine, no water for the fire brigade. They have no choice but to organize dry runs using a hose without water from a fire engine that doesn't exist. And that would have been difficult to fill with enough water anyway.

[00:05:04]To keep young firefighters motivated, the highlight of the exercise is target spraying using actual water from newly acquired fire extinguisher backpacks that operate with a hand pump.

[00:05:35]The Atakama covers an area of more than a thousand km.

[00:05:40]It would be difficult to find a landscape as inhospitable and hostile to life except on a distant planet.

[00:05:53]Distant planets are closer to Earth here than anywhere else, thanks to the Paranol Observatory, which succeeded in taking the first picture of a planet outside our solar system.

[00:06:10]The observatory's guest house is a man-made subterranean oasis built like a space station and so exceptional that a James Bond film was shot here.

[00:06:29]The observatory is situated 2,600 m above sea level. It's part of the European Southern Observatory, an organization financed by 14 European countries. Its interconnected telescopes are regarded as the most sophisticated optical instrument in the world.

[00:06:49]The surrounding conditions are ideal.

[00:06:51]The air is still and extremely dry. And the isolation means there are no interfering sources of light.

[00:07:06]Are there planets out there where water exists in liquid form, a prerequisite for life the way we know it?

[00:07:26]Even NASA conducted studies in the Atakama. The question they explored, what methods would have to be used to search for living organisms on Mars?

[00:07:38]The biochemist Bonito Gomez Silva and his students are hunting for microorganisms in a location that has verifiably received no rain for at least 40 years.

[00:07:52]Microscopic creatures are known to be able to survive extreme habitats. There are primordial bacteria that thrive in temperatures of 80° C that are capable of living in highly concentrated salt solutions or even strong acids or bases.

[00:08:10]>> There are several places on Earth that are considered analoges for the Mars surface. One of these is the Atakama desert. It's a very dry desert as it is right now the surface of Mars.

[00:08:28]Therefore, learning about the biology of the Atakama desert will will give us some experience to speculate what is happening right now or what happens in Mars many millions of years ago when Mars became a desert.

[00:08:53]>> Not only the ground but also the air is searched for microbes. They could be anywhere. After all, the greatest part of the Earth's biomass consists of microorganisms.

[00:09:06]>> We are ready.

[00:09:08]>> The vacuumed air samples will be evaluated at the university back home.

[00:09:15]>> Availability of liquid water seems to be the major factor. All the other factors, UV light, excess of solar radiation, salinity, etc. can be overcome by the microbial organism. But the absence of liquid water is the major limit for life. In some places, water is available a few hours a year. Still you can demonstrate that there are or microorganisms living there waiting for those few hours of water.

[00:09:56]The east of the Atakama is home to the earth's third biggest salt lake.

[00:10:01]Here, water gushes out from hot springs.

[00:10:04]Unfortunately, it's rather indigestible.

[00:10:08]The geysers have a temperature of 80° C.

[00:10:12]They're quite salty and contain arsenic at levels up to 300 times higher than the World Health Organization's maximum allowance for drinking water.

[00:10:28]There is water in the west where the Atakama borders on the Pacific too. But this water also comes with a catch.

[00:10:36]There is neither rain nor river here, but rather a fog that rises from the ocean and drifts up the coastal mountains.

[00:10:45]The fog's precious moisture would slip by untapped if it weren't for Yugo Cortez, the fog catcher. He used to earn his living as a fisherman, but when fish grew scarce, he and his colleagues decided to catch fog instead and make the desert arable with it.

[00:11:06]They installed large plastic nets in the mountains where the fog condenses. The water drips down and is collected as if it came from an open tap.

[00:11:26]Cortez is a full-time fog catcher. The initiative is supported by several organizations, among them the University of Santiago.

[00:11:38]The coastal fog appears reliably throughout the year, although it is a little thinner in autumn and winter.

[00:11:48]Fog catching is surprisingly productive.

[00:11:51]Each square meter of net generates more than 1 and 1/2 L of water per day.

[00:11:57]At the end of the water conduit lies an irrigated field growing aloe vera. The cooperative around Cortez sells the leaves individually in the supermarket and reports doing a brisk business.

[00:12:13]I and we want to show the world that there are many things one can do with this water, especially when it's put to use with sensitivity to our culture here.

[00:12:25]In the vastness of the surrounding desert, Cortis' small patch of irrigation suggests the proverbial drop in the ocean.

[00:12:39]Is there a counterpoint to the bone dry Atakama?

[00:12:43]The answer is yes. Cherupi in India on the slopes of the Himalaya.

[00:12:59]Cherupunji is credited with being the wetest place on earth. Its legendary all-time record over the course of just one year between August 1860 and July 1861.

[00:13:11]Cherupunji experienced more than 26 m of rain.

[00:13:30]The clouds usually arrive from Bangladesh. They move northward and open up with rain over Cherapuni.

[00:13:40]Cherupunji is situated about 1,400 m above sea level. During the five months of the heaviest rainfall, the air is foggy and the skies are filled with clouds without a moment's relief.

[00:13:54]The natives protect themselves with classic umbrellas with plastic sheets typical of slums around the world.

[00:14:05]And with the traditional perfectly designed canoe, a wicker work device as beautifully adapted to the needs of the people as if it were developed by a dedicated engineering laboratory.

[00:14:19]They protect from the wet but leave the hands free for working.

[00:14:29]The rain also benefits housework.

[00:14:35]Only drying the laundry remains an unsolved problem.

[00:14:48]But there's no chance of finding dry firewood anywhere.

[00:14:59]These girls are on their way home from school. For 16-year-old Myante, that means a 2-hour walk.

[00:15:13]The family have five siblings. Their father works in a coal mine, as does their mother. They are used to the moisture in the house. They have no alternative, and they've never known anything different.

[00:15:28]My auntie's village contains barely 700 inhabitants. From the school in Cherupunji to her home in the neighboring valley is a distance of approximately 12 kilometers. as the crow flies.

[00:15:54]>> After getting drenched returning from school, I change clothes to keep myself warm because it's really cold.

[00:16:06]Then I hang my clothes above the fireplace.

[00:16:11]My shoes are placed in front of the fire too to be ready for the next school day.

[00:16:25]160 years ago, a British naturalist described Cherapuni as being so desolate and inhospitable as one can only imagine. Nevertheless, 10,000 people live here today. Life is hard and work is rare.

[00:16:49]Many earned their daily rice from the profits of self-dug coal mines, my auntie's father included. A proper start to the workday requires a hefty meal and a good smoke.

[00:17:03]Is the work as dangerous as it seems?

[00:17:10]Yes, it is. And many have already died in the mines.

[00:17:15]My greatest fear is that the coal will crush or hurt me. Sometimes I don't want to be inside alone at all.

[00:17:32]>> The self-dug and unsecured tunnels advance deep into the mountain. The miners here are physically rather small.

[00:17:40]An average built westerner would never fit.

[00:17:58]Hey, cut this They fight against the mountain and against the water.

[00:18:26]>> The mine often fills with water, which is a problem at the entrance, but also underground. The coal gets heavier. If it rains, I'm unable to unload it. Then I have to haul the cart load up to the truck.

[00:18:48]Deep in the mine, everything is practically underwater. The coal is singing wet and correspondingly heavy.

[00:19:14]Yeah, A good worker manages three to four cart loads per day which earns him about 80 cents.

[00:20:07]up in the ground for the best thing.

[00:20:19]Okay.

[00:20:29]After the carts are unloaded, the women haul the coal some 50 m up to the street.

[00:20:48]A full basket weighs between 45 to 50 kg.

[00:21:06]Some women make this trip up to 50 times a day, depending on how wet the coal is and how desperately they need the money.

[00:21:24]Then the coal is sorted and divided by hand.

[00:21:36]>> To keep up everyone's strength, they take occasional breaks for bettl nuts.

[00:21:41]Chewing bettl nuts makes the heavy work bearable. Their ingredients enhance a sense of well-being, counteract fatigue, and curb appetite.

[00:22:01]>> For the Indian weather authority, Cherupji has a long history as a measuring station.

[00:22:14]Temperatures and rainfall have been recorded here for 180 years. First by the British colonial power, then by the Indians themselves.

[00:22:29]Over the past 70 years, a yearly average of 12 m of rain has fallen here. That's about 10 times as much as in New York City and 20 times as much as in Vienna.

[00:22:40]Most of the rain falls in June where the average amounts to about 2 and 1/2 mters.

[00:22:48]Cherupunji became famous for its weather, but this hasn't translated into tourism, at least so far. Recently, some have been trying to change that.

[00:22:59]Dennis Ryan is the owner of the only local holiday hotel. He understands why the locals don't complain about the rain. People have lived here for ages.

[00:23:10]They are born here. They know this is the world. It they don't realize that it's not raining this much in other places. They accept this is how the it should be raining. Sometime back my wife was telling how it's raining here and that side is all sunny. They feel it is like it should be like this.

[00:23:28]Clouds of dust and glaring sunlight. A scene as far removed from Cherupji as if it were on the other side of the globe, which in fact it is. The Earth's wetest place is about 18,000 km away from its driest one.

[00:24:07]This is the Atakam and one of Kiagua's last farms driving his tractor.

[00:24:17]Agriculture used to flourish here, producing grain and alalfa to feed livestock. Those days are gone. But the 73-year-old doggedly refuses to give up his herd.

[00:24:29]His son has long found himself another job.

[00:24:40]At daybreak, while the sun still hovers at the horizon, he feeds his animals with green stuffs.

[00:24:50]Ever since the river began to dry, the oasis has become a shadow of its former self. No doubt one day the desert will reclaim what's left of it.

[00:25:12]The lower river used to provide Kiyagua with plenty of water. It feeds the numerous irrigation canals, a system that worked perfectly until about 20 years ago when the water rights were granted to the mining industry. Since then, the lower has been contaminated with such highly poisonous effluent that all life in it died. What's left of it today is only a trickle.

[00:26:08]I've seen it rain no more than five times altogether.

[00:26:12]>> No, it simply didn't happen. No, no, no.

[00:26:21]>> At least I didn't see it with my own eyes.

[00:26:24]No.

[00:26:29]>> Juan Loza is 60 years old. His bar has been closed for years.

[00:26:42]When there was still enough good water, these crustaceans lived in the river.

[00:26:47]They were a local specialtity and tasted really good. Why are they gone? Because they need oxygen rich water. And this water is dead now. Contaminated and poisoned.

[00:27:02]Why? Because of the mine. Agriculture and turnip cultivation aren't possible anymore. That's all gone. It's not possible anymore. This water isn't good for anything. It's contaminated.

[00:27:17]>> Here, I got a sample.

[00:27:20]>> You see Kiagua seems to have lost the fight against the Atakama.

[00:28:04]The last train has already left.

[00:28:11]If people in the Atakama run out of usable water, they simply move elsewhere. The prospects for doing that in Africa are much dimmer.

[00:28:22]The Republic of Niger is one of the hottest and driest regions on Earth.

[00:28:35]A state almost twice the size of France that is 80% desert. The terrible drought in the early 1970s was followed by yet more extremely dry spells. The country has been unable to recover to this day.

[00:28:49]The groundwater level continues to sink.

[00:28:52]Trees, shrubs, and villages are swallowed by the desert.

[00:29:12]Indial a small village in the southeast.

[00:29:15]Rain is a foreign word here.

[00:29:20]Niger is one of the world's poorest countries. Almost 2/3 of its population is unable to read or write. Life expectancy is a little over 50 years.

[00:29:33]Every woman gives birth to an average of seven children, resulting in the largest population growth among all nations.

[00:29:46]And then there is the sand. The brief spells of rain here aren't enough to stem the advancing desert.

[00:29:58]The dunes press southward and overrun the villages. The people build new villages, but the desert swiftly follows at their heels.

[00:30:10]In the daytime, the temperatures climb to 50° C in the shade. Work is possible only until 11 in the morning. Then the heat grows unbearable.

[00:30:25]New houses are built towards the south of the village. The old ones at the northern side disappear in the sand.

[00:30:37]>> The center of life is a well a little over a kilometer away.

[00:30:50]Not all villages like Indial are lucky enough to have a fairly modern and easily accessible well.

[00:30:58]Even when there is enough groundwater, people frequently lack the necessary tools and materials to construct a well.

[00:31:09]Cows are the people's most valuable possessions.

[00:31:14]They are sent to their mega pastures at daybreak and by the evening or sooner they return to the only source of water.

[00:31:26]Were it not for its persevering cows, the village and its inhabitants would probably long since have vanished.

[00:31:37]A life at the limit. Worrying about water every day beneath the scorching sun, threatened by drought and famine, and always running from the sand.

[00:31:52]>> Niger's population has doubled over the last two decades, and living conditions are growing increasingly difficult. Half of Niger's population is under 14 years old.

[00:32:04]Survival is a matter of luck. 114 of a thousand newborns don't survive the first year of their life. In comparison, in Germany, it's only four of a thousand.

[00:32:40]You're welcome.

[00:32:42]>> Healthy trees are the only thing that can stop the desert. In times of greatest need, however, when water and food are scarce, people often have no choice but to harvest the last few trees.

[00:32:59]The trees are sacrifice because the desert crushes everything. And the desert advances because the trees have been cleared out of the way.

[00:33:15]80s brought reforestation projects that actually succeeded in reclaiming land from the desert. As of today, supposedly an area the size of Belgium.

[00:33:49]India's farmers have realized the importance of protecting existing vegetation and the enormous benefits of planting new greenery in the sand.

[00:33:59]Everyone is up and about. The pioneer plants are supplied by the government.

[00:34:09]This scrub brush is a hardy June plant common in the wild from northern Africa to Pakistan.

[00:34:18]>> It is capable of quickly generating humus at its roots, thus readying the ground for trees to follow. A beneficial side effect, the plants also serve as food for domestic animals.

[00:34:34]The land is so barren that even the thriftiest camels need an occasional ration of concentrated feed, which usually happens just before they are sent on the journey with the caravan.

[00:35:00]Hey The camel has only one option. It just has to want to.

[00:35:15]And that settles the matter. Departure will be in an hour.

[00:35:27]Because the arid land won't yield enough to sustain its population anymore, many inhabitants took to trading and business can take their caravans long distances across the green border into neighboring Nigeria or Chad.

[00:35:42]The contents of these bags are for trade. Officially, they contain salt or millet.

[00:35:51]A camel caravan has nothing romantic about it for the men. It's simply the only means of transportation.

[00:35:58]Cars are rarely seen here. In all of Niger, bear in mind, a country almost twice the size of France. There are only 4,000 kilometers of paved roads.

[00:36:13]Everyone is getting ready for departure.

[00:36:30]>> Their journey will take 3 to 4 days.

[00:36:33]Nigeria is about 80 km away.

[00:37:00]What a sharp contrast to the wetest place on Earth.

[00:37:06]Nothing could be more paradoxical than the fact that even Cherapungji, despite being drowned in rain, suffers an occasional lack of usable water. Its waterfalls help explain this strange phenomenon. Cherupunji is situated on a plateau where the water runs off as fast as it falls from the sky.

[00:37:26]The reason is its massive deforestation.

[00:37:33]The result during those months with comparatively little rain, the people meet at the village well just like in Niger.

[00:37:50]The fact that nature is highly sensitive and that it depends on every single tree has long been recognized in Cherapuni.

[00:38:00]The renowned mission school established 80 years ago under British rule works at developing solutions together with its students.

[00:38:07]>> Also do that for the students. The solution is very very simple. Not only for the students, I will say for all the citizens of India and all the citizens of this world. Yes. The simple thing is every birthday you plant a tree as a gift to this mother earth. Right.

[00:38:29]Just imagine if I talk about India, the population of India is more than 125 crores today. And each one of us if we plant a tree, is this not a is this not a good gift to the nature?

[00:38:47]>> But who will do this?

[00:38:50]>> Can I see your hand? Those you feel those of you feel that yes I am the person who is going to add something to the environment one is just a small number you can go beyond that a water shortage in the world's wetest place that's not the only surprise Cherupunji has to offer there are even rain makers The two are quite sensible. They make rain only during the rainy season.

[00:39:39]>> Our ancestors taught us that it is better to call the rain during the rainy season.

[00:39:47]In the dry season, it would be against the rules of nature.

[00:39:52]It simply wouldn't be right and we respect the laws of nature.

[00:40:00]>> The very next day, all doubts have vanished. The conjuration worked. It paused as if the floodgates of heaven were opened. We are, of course, in the rainiest month of the year.

[00:40:25]Rain in Cherupji isn't simply an event.

[00:40:28]It's a spectacle that even took Jaz Vinda Singh the teacher by surprise.

[00:40:34]This is the wetest place on the earth.

[00:40:36]And what I am experiencing the very first year it I'll not say cats and dog rather I'll use another term bulls and elephants because it is much much more than any other parts of the uh world.

[00:40:53]>> Cherupunji seems to be unsurpassable in terms of both precipitation and plain cheerfulness.

[00:41:01]However, there is another place that at least statistically is capable of keeping up in many ways.

[00:41:10]An island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Reunion, a French overseas territory and thus a part of the European Union.

[00:41:32]Reunion is a natural paradise with sheer coasts, a foamy sea, volcanoes, mountains, and rain as well as cloud forests. The island is also a multiple world record holder from the largest rainfall per day to the largest rainfall within 15 days. Both of these records came in 1980. 6 and 1/2 mters of rain in 15 days. As much as falls in Paris over the course of a whole 10 years, water wherever one turns. The volcanic rock is so porous that the rainwater immediately drains and resurfaces through countless sources all over the island.

[00:42:24]The latest records are from the year 2007. Measured in the immediate surroundings of the extinct commissa on Pon de Leones, one of the world's most active volcanoes. The measuring station is situated 2,300 m above sea level.

[00:42:43]Philip War works for Mio France, the French National Meteorological Service.

[00:42:54]up here. One has to be ready for anything.

[00:42:59]>> We are at a location with one of the highest precipitation levels in all of Rayun. 5,400 mm fell here in 7 days and more than 6,000 mm in 11 days. That's an unmatched record.

[00:43:16]Unlike in Indian Cherupunji, Reunion's rainfall isn't more or less evenly distributed throughout the year. The worst torrents occur mostly in January and February. Fortunately, the island isn't struggling with acute deforestation.

[00:43:32]The rain has created an enchanting garden.

[00:44:02]Reunion is both beautiful and politically part of the European Union.

[00:44:07]The coming decades are expected to see rapid population growth.

[00:44:13]Soon, settlement pressure will increase even in those parts of the island that have previously been spared due to their extreme weather conditions.

[00:44:25]Still, the ceaseless torance and its steep and craggy volcanic landscape will massively restrict the colonization of the island's heartland.

[00:44:38]Along the few roads that lead into the deep valleys, landslides and subsequent roadblocks are part of everyday life.

[00:44:57]The inhabitants appreciate that the island demands respect and that there is no remedy against such quantities of rain anyway.

[00:45:08]The best one can do is wait and watch, patiently accepting the forces of nature and repair what can be repaired once the weather allows it.

[00:45:20]18,000 kilometers away from here.

[00:45:23]Everything appears reversed.

[00:45:29]Roberto Sosa Palap, the water driver from Kiagua, is on his way home. The reservoirs are full. One order is still waiting.

[00:45:45]Every time I come this way with the water delivery, I always stop at my nephew's memorial, my brother's son.

[00:45:56]He died in an accident and we arranged plants and set up a cross there to his memory.

[00:46:08]We grow plants in the desert in remembrance of him and provide them with water.

[00:46:16]It's supposed to be a beautiful place he would enjoy and that other people can visit too and benefit from.

[00:46:44]Heat.

[00:46:50]Heat.

[00:47:17]Roberto dedicates the most precious thing his native land has to offer to his dead nephew's memory. Water, a symbol and the foundation of all life.

[00:48:06]All Saints Day in Kiagua.

[00:48:09]The members of the band are almost identical with the members of the volunteer fire department.

[00:48:18]It's the one day of the year when all inhabitants of this dying village get together. Those who still live in Kiagua, those who have long moved away, and those who passed away and rest at the local graveyard.

[00:49:11]It's a Christian holiday and their celebration is boisterous as much as it is contemplative.

[00:49:19]Despite the poison river, despite their dilapidated houses, and despite Kiagua's future looking dim?

[00:49:31]So, is this what life at the limit looks like? the daily struggle for survival.

[00:49:44]Kiagua's inhabitants are lucky enough to enjoy at least a basic level of prosperity. However bad things may be, they'll never quite get so bad that all hope is lost. And as long as that remains true, there are more than enough reasons to celebrate.

[00:50:07]Hello. Hello.

[00:50:21]Heat. Heat. N.

[00:50:57]Come on. Come on.