All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S09E02.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR:
They're watching you.

More than 5,000 satellites
circle the Earth.

Every day,
they uncover new

mysterious phenomena
that defy explanation.

Revealed from the skies,

Hitler's secret horror lab.

RICHIE: Oh my God,
look at this place.

What on Earth is this?

NARRATOR: The weird new plot
to bring down America.

We're actually funding
the terrorists to target us.

NARRATOR: And the mystery temple
on Orgy Island.

We've only scratched
the surface of

the horrors
that may have gone on here.

NARRATOR: Baffling phenomena.
Mysteries from space.

What on Earth are they?

**

**

**

Historian Alex Richie is
traveling across the freezing

waters of the Baltic Sea,

heading for the Polish coast.

She's been drawn here
by a weird

structure revealed from space
on October 19th, 2019.

RICHIE:
This structure is strange.

It's just like

large cubes of concrete that
have been put into the ocean.

Just doesn't seem
to have any purpose.

MUNOZ: It looks almost
like an oil rig,

but the problem is you don't
see offshore oil rigs

this close to shore.

HYMEL: It definitely looks
foreboding and unwelcoming,

and it's been abandoned
for a while.

NARRATOR: Richie's journey takes
her to the Gulf of Gdansk.

It's only when
the historian approaches

the structure that its true
scale becomes apparent.

RICHIE: Oh, my God.
Look at this place.

This is amazing.

NARRATOR: The massive ruins
rise some 80 feet out of

the sea and appear on
the brink of collapse.

RICHIE:
This is just incredible.

It could be
a Cold War structure,

but the thing about it is
that it's so badly decayed.

NARRATOR: Richie thinks that
the building's size

and composition point to
another dark period in history.

If you look at
the rebar construction,

it it's quite clear that
this was most probably

a Nazi structure.

Now, this makes
sense in many ways,

because this was an area
that Hitler very,

very much wanted to control.

NARRATOR: The Gulf of Gdansk
played a pivotal role

in World War II.

It was this stretch of
water that

witnessed the very first shots
of the conflict...

[cannons blasting]

...during the Battle
of Westerplatte

on September 1st, 1939.

RICHIE: There are no signs
of gun emplacements,

so it doesn't really make any
sense as a defensive structure

at all.

So this implies that it is
some sort of

testing facility of some kind.

Now, because it's on
the water,

what does one test
on the water?

The biggest clue of all

lies in these two

carefully calibrated

chutes right here,

which are directly under
the tower.

They look to me

as if they might be
torpedo bays.

NARRATOR: Wartime records
confirm that Hitler

orders the construction
of this massive torpedo

testing facility in 1940.

He hopes it will solve
one of the greatest

technological problems faced

by Nazi Germany during the
opening years of the conflict.

Torpedoes are a disaster
early in the war.

They either miss
their mark completely,

they blow up too soon, or in
some cases, they circle

back and hit the submarine
that fired them,

sinking that submarine.

[cheering]

NARRATOR: To secure an early
victory in the conflict,

Hitler desperately needs
his U-boat wolfpacks

to destroy the American
convoys heading to Britain,

[boat horn blows]

strangling supplies to
the beleaguered nation.

But a quarter of all
his torpedoes failed,

allowing vital supplies
to get through.

The torpedo not working,
like anything else,

is going to infuriate
Adolf Hitler.

He wants efficiency.

He wants
mission accomplishment.

[shouting indistinctly]

NARRATOR: Hitler makes
torpedo production

his number one priority,

inspired by the way
Japanese planes

devastate the American fleet
at Pearl Harbor.

[explosion blasts]

The fuhrer focuses
the German war machines'

might on designing
a revolutionary new

aerial torpedo.

Perhaps the greatest fear
any Allied sailor would have

had during World War II was
an aerial drop torpedo.

So what you're seeing here
was an absolutely

central mission in their eyes
for defeating Allies.

NARRATOR: These new torpedoes
are one of several Wunderwaffe,

or Miracle Weapons,

Hitler develops
an increasingly

desperate attempts
to turn the tide of war.

Others include a mortar that
fired shells the size of

a rhinoceros and the world's
first rocket-powered

fighter plane.

Meanwhile, the Allies, in
the neverending game of cat

and mouse, are making their own
strange weapons,

including the bouncing bomb.

[crashing noises]

But the Nazi engineers
working at

the structure in the image
faced a monumental task.

The only aerial torpedo they
have to work on is of an old

Italian design,

which has a failure rate
of over 50%.

The Italian torpedo not only
fails half the time, they also

are designed to be dropped
from a low altitude,

a steady, slow path to your
target, exposing the pilot to

all kinds of fire from
the ship.

WALTERS: Now, you've got
to imagine what it must be like

flying an airplane
really quite low

towards a ship,
which is firing at you.

That's just, you know,
suicide.

NARRATOR: Scientists
at the facility test

a series of devastating
new torpedoes...

[whooshing noise]

[crashing noise]

...launching them from
the structure or dropping them

from planes flying over
the Gulf of Gdansk.

Looking at
the satellite image,

I can see there are two towers
far off across the bay.

And these would have had
a net put between them so

that the torpedoes would have
been caught

when they hit the net.

NARRATOR:
But by the time

the experimental Nazi
torpedoes are ready for action,

[gunfire blasting]

the Allies have all but
destroyed the German air force,

rendering them obsolete.

WALTERS: If you don't have
aerial superiority,

it doesn't matter
whether this torpedo works.

So therefore,
these torpedoes end up

becoming kind of
a white elephant.

NARRATOR: In 1945, as the Red
Army sweeps through Poland,

the Nazi scientists abandon
the secret facility seen

from space,

and it crumbles to ruin.

RICHIE:
It's an amazing structure,

and in many ways is
a testament to

the folly and the horror of --
of World War II.

**

NARRATOR: Coming up,

Afghan drug lords
versus America.

In the end, terrorist groups
will be the winners.

NARRATOR: And a buried mystery
on Treasure Island.

Straightaway,
I'm thinking,

is this some kind of
pirate base?

NARRATOR:
September 10th, 2019.

High above
western Afghanistan,

a satellite scans
Farah province,

searching for new threats to
America and its allies.

This area of Afghanistan is
continuously being monitored.

Because it's so remote,

and because of the lack
of governance,

it's a place where terrorists
and other criminal activity

take place.

NARRATOR: A new structure in

the hostile Bakwa district
catches analysts' attention.

This is strange.

There is a small compound,
and near

this building,
we have this dark spot.

SZULGIT:
It's some kind of liquid pool.

Whatever it is, it appears to
be leaking out of the building.

NARRATOR: Maxar's SecureWatch
technology reveals dozens

of other weird pools

have recently
sprung up across the district.

The signatures
that we're seeing in these

satellite images are part of
a disturbing trend.

The formation of
these pools is something

that has exploded in
this part of Afghanistan.

NARRATOR:
For some reason,

the mystery
compounds are attracting

the might of
the U.S. military,

which has launched over
60 airstrikes against them

in recent months.

The U.S. military
doesn't just

bomb some place
for no reason whatsoever.

Whatever
these black pools are,

it's some serious stuff.

What's so dangerous
about these that

they warrant such a strong
military response?

NARRATOR: Intelligence reports
indicate there are

as many as 20 terrorist cells
operating in these arid lands.

CARTER: We know that Al Qaeda
had a lab that

actually attempted to make
chlorine and mustard gas

in Afghanistan.

All you really need
is a small lab hidden away

from the rest of the world
to make this stuff.

So perhaps they're using
these compounds to build

our manufacturers some type of
chemical or biological weapons.

NARRATOR:
But the military's response

to the compounds
doesn't support

the idea that they are
terrorist factories making

deadly chemical agents.

If this was
a chemical weapons site,

the military probably would
have done more than just

attacking it from the air.

[explosion blasts]

NARRATOR: The number of targeted
compounds suggests this

is a different large-scale
criminal enterprise.

One thing Afghanistan
is known for is heroin,

so maybe this is a different
kind of lab making heroin out

of opium, and this pool
is wastewater

from that process.

NARRATOR: Afghanistan
produces 90% of the world's

opium
and 85% of all heroin,

generating $6.6 billion
in revenue a year.

Afghanistan has a near global
monopoly on heroin.

The Taliban controls much of
the drug trade in Afghanistan,

and they utilize that activity
to basically raise money for

their operations.

NARRATOR:
In February 2020,

intelligence operatives
conduct a mission

off the coast of Sri Lanka

that sheds new light
on what's happening inside

the mystery compounds.

The Sri Lankan government
actually raided a ship

they believed was carrying
just Afghan heroin

and found a huge quantity of
a different type of

illegal drug,
and that's methamphetamine.

It turns out that crystal meth
production is a huge problem in

rural Afghanistan,

and labs are sprouting up in
an otherwise empty dessert.

NARRATOR: Crystal meth is
a highly addictive

stimulant that affects
the central nervous system.

The recent surge of production
in Afghanistan has

seen a 600% increase
in seizures of the drug.

The boom is the result of
a huge natural advantage

the Afghans have over
criminals trying to produce

the drug in the West.

Meth is made using a chemical
precursor called ephedrine,

and this is normally extracted
from cold and flu tablets.

Afghan meth cookers
have figured out that

they can produce their own
precursor chemical.

They can make ephedrine
from a plant.

SZULGIT: Ephedra grows wild in
the deserts of Afghanistan,

so there's this endless,

cheap, and easy-to-get supply
for anyone living in the area.

NARRATOR: The Afghan species
of the ephedra plant

contains particularly high
concentrations of ephedrine.

They grind it down, right,
dry it out, soak it in water,

hence your wastewater
and these runoff pools,

and then filter it.

Boom, you got
your precursor chemical.

The signatures that we see,
the slit trench,

the pool of liquid,

are telltale signs of
a methamphetamine lab.

NARRATOR:
In just this one district,

300 meth labs have
recently sprung up.

In a single day in May
of 2019,

U.S. forces destroy
68 of them.

But analysis suggests
the surviving labs can produce

around 70 tons of the drug
each month.

It doesn't take a rocket
scientist to figure out that

the meth being produced in
Afghanistan could be moved

towards the U.S.

NARRATOR: Almost a million
Americans now use crystal meth,

spending almost $50 billion
a year on the drug.

And the explosion in
production in Afghanistan

could soon see yet more

drug money being funneled
into terrorists' pockets.

Think about the ability that
gives them, right, to create

more havoc and murder
and mayhem

out in the world is they push
their terrorist agenda.

[bomb whooshes]

NARRATOR:
The war on terror is estimated

to have cost around
$6.4 trillion...

...over $19,000
per U.S. citizen.

The satellite images from
Afghanistan reveal

the true cost could soon be
much higher.

So here's the trick, right?

We take the product,
we are the addicts,

and we're actually funding
terrorists to target us.

NARRATOR:
Coming up,

death in paradise.

He was literally hacked
to death with machetes.

And secrets and lies
on the island of sin.

This is actually
an island owned

by none other than
Jeffrey Epstein.

NARRATOR:
May 2019.

Archaeologists
take to the skies above

an archipelago 600 miles west
of Ecuador.

This is the Galapagos Islands,
uh, considered to

be among the most pristine
environments on the planet.

HORTON: The Galapagos are famous
because it was where

Charles Darwin made all

the amazing discoveries,
where the theory of evolution

was evolved.

NARRATOR: Evolution was a deeply
controversial idea

in Darwin's day.

But because of his landmark
work here,

the islands are preserved as
an unspoiled virgin wilderness.

However, as the team
scans a forested region

on San Cristobal Island,

they capture a lidar image of
something unexpected.

HORTON: Well, this is
really intriguing.

It shows structures,
which hidden below

the dense vegetation.

CADDICK-ADAMS: There are all
these rectangles and squares,

which is really odd,

because those shapes
shouldn't be there.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists wonder
if the hidden structures

are the legacy of people
who may have

visited these shores
long before the arrival of

Charles Darwin.

HORTON: One possibility
is the Incas.

In the 1950s, people went
to the Galapagos and found

about 2,000 shards of pottery,

including one they interesting
piece of an Inca flute.

[flute playing]

BELLINGER: It suggests Inca
activity in this area,

but not enough to prove that
this was an Inca settlement.

NARRATOR: After
the Conquistadors

annihilate the Inca,

they plunder their empire
for gold,

and the Galapagos
become a stop-off

for Spanish ships laden
with treasure.

Where there are Spanish
treasure galleons,

there are pirates.

NARRATOR: Bloodthirsty pirates
found these islands

to be perfect hunting grounds.

[indistinct shouting]

Most famous among them is
Englishman Sir Francis Drake,

who operates with
the permission of the Queen.

She wants him to drain

the resources
of the Spanish Empire,

and he's only too happy to
help, adopting tactics

so brutal they earn him
the nickname El Draque,

the Dragon.

The Galapagos offer
a pirate a gift.

No one is ever going
to find you.

So straightaway,
I'm thinking,

is this some kind of
pirate base?

NARRATOR: When archaeologists
study the site

in the image,
they discover

the structures are a legacy of
a different chapter

in these islands'
twisting history.

HUNT:
Recent investigations shows

that here we have all
the traces

of industrialization,
the remnants of

a transformation of
this tropical paradise

100-plus years ago.

NARRATOR: Theo excavations
reveal the site in the image

is the relic of
an extraordinary

economic phenomenon --

the sugar boom of
the 1800s.

HUNT: Sugar was possibly
the most lucrative crop

of the 19th century,

and the term for sugar becomes
synonymous with white gold.

NARRATOR: Between the 17th
and 19th centuries,

fueled by plantations in
the Americas, annual sugar

consumption skyrockets.

In Britain alone,
it jumps from

the weight of 4 pounds
per person to almost 100 pounds,

a 22-fold increase.

Whether it's for candy
or just as a food additive,

sugar becomes ubiquitous
in the diet.

NARRATOR: During the second half
of the 19th century,

world coffee production also
triples -- in 1875,

the vast riches generated
by these

two cash crops lead
entrepreneur Manuel J. Cobos

to construct
the structures in the image.

It's the ultimate get rich
quick scheme.

In just a few years,
San Cristobal

goes from
a pristine wilderness

to an industrial powerhouse.

NARRATOR: Cobos transforms
what today looks like

an unspoiled paradise

into 3,000 acres of coffee
and sugar cane fields,

growing rich on the 500 tons
of sugar it produces each year.

HORTON: He called
this establishment

the Hacienda del Progreso.

The, as it were, the Progress
Farm, which was kind of ironic

given the conditions
in which people were working.

NARRATOR: Just like the
plantations in the Caribbean

that inspired El Progreso.

Cobos's wealth is built on
a foundation of human suffering.

Cobos managed to secure
a great number of prisoners

from Ecuador,
who completed

their sentence,
in service in his factories.

He treated them very,

very poorly and often meted
out punishment personally.

NARRATOR: Cobos's tyranny
and brutality turned

Darwin's paradise into
a festering hellhole.

Floggings and imprisonment for
minor offenses are commonplace.

Disease and death are rife.

BELLINGER: This enormous
factory complex has been

described as a concentration
camp like place.

HUNT: The work conditions
were so desperate

that his own workers
rose up against him

and struck him down.

BELLINGER:
Karma did its thing.

They shot him three times
with his own gun.

[gunshots blasting]

They threw him out of
the window,

but he survived the fall and
crawled into a nearby ditch.

But the workers then
discovered him,

and he was literally hacked
to death with machetes.

NARRATOR: Without the tyrant
holding it together,

El Progreso falls into ruin

and is slowly reclaimed
by the jungle.

The only clue to its
industrial past

swallowed by history until
revealed once more

from the skies.

It's amazing to think that
at some point, this place was

a thriving sugar and coffee
producing machine,

and now it's back to
being wilderness.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
the power of 10,000 suns.

This is full-on James Bond
villain level technology.

It's a proper Death Ray.

NARRATOR: And a stinking
river of death.

This place has been nicknamed
the Slow-Motion Chernobyl.

NARRATOR:
March 1st, 2017,

420 miles above
southwest France.

The GeoEye-1 satellite

captures this image.

LINSELL: It looks like
a giant row of open laptops.

It's really weird.

SZULGIT:
When you look at it closely,

you can see it's clearly
a structure

that spans a huge space.

The cars are tiny
in comparison.

NARRATOR: Closer analysis
suggests the laptop-like

features are lines of
giant mirrors.

You can see that when the sun
hits these white squares,

they're highly reflective.

Studying the image,
Greg Szulgit

thinks he recognizes
the mirrors'

distinctive arrangement.

What we're actually

looking at are heliostats,

squares of thousands of
mirrors that are all angled

so the energy gets focused
into one tiny surface.

NARRATOR: The mirrors combine to
concentrate huge amounts of

sunlight into
a highly focused beam

just 31 inches
in diameter.

You're taking all of
the sunlight energy,

and you're focusing it
on a single spot so that

it gets up to 6,000
degrees Fahrenheit,

which is hot enough
to melt most metals.

NARRATOR: The destructive power
of this beam raises fears that

the image is evidence of some
kind of solar weapon.

If you were to stand there,
you would be incinerated.

It's not an exaggeration
to say that this

is full-on James Bond villain
level technology.

It's a proper Death Ray.

NARRATOR: A solar-powered
Death Ray sounds like

pure science fiction,

but there is historical
evidence to suggest it might be

a very real possibility.

According to
a second century historian,

in 212 B.C., the inventor
Archimedes used

an arrangement of mirrors to
repel an invading Roman fleet,

and both the Vikings
and Egyptians are known

to have harnessed the
destructive power of the sun.

Even the Nazis are rumored to
have thought about focusing

huge amounts of sun

into a giant beam that
could just vaporize

whole sections of a city.

The Nazi super weapon is
called the Sonnengewehr,

a huge,
reflective metallic dish

attached to
an orbiting space station.

Building it was beyond
the limits of

wartime technology,

but Wernher von Braun,
the father of rocketry,

took it so seriously that he
continued to lobby the U.S. to

build a similar device right up
to the 1960s.

It's a bit like a giant
version of a kid

taking a magnifying glass and
killing ants on the ground.

NARRATOR: The mirrors in the
image appear to be stationary,

making them unsuitable
for use as a weapon,

but the site could nonetheless
serve a military purpose.

What we're seeing here is
a sort of tree-like structure

with a concave building
at the end,

and that makes me think
this is a solar furnace.

NARRATOR:
The location of the image

corresponds with a facility
known as Odeillo,

the largest
solar furnace in the world.

By bouncing sunlight
off an eight-story concave

mirror and into a laboratory,

it creates a beam of
3,200 kilowatts...

...equivalent
to the concentrated energy

of 10,000 suns.

What they're doing with this
energy is they're using it

to create and test

some of the most high-tech
materials on planet Earth,

and to just pummel it with
intense amounts of energy.

NARRATOR: Exactly what
happens here is secret,

but we do know that
the solar furnace is critical

to the success of
multibillion-dollar space

and military projects.

MOSHER: This facility is helping
develop space-age materials

that can withstand
the temperatures,

the punishing heat of
atmospheric re-entry.

NARRATOR: When a rocket
or missile reaches space,

temperatures around it drop
to as low as

455 degrees below zero.

On re-entry,
a nose cone can reach

12,000 degrees Fahrenheit,

2,000 degrees hotter than
the surface of the sun.

If the hardware cannot handle
this sudden temperature change,

it induces a potentially
catastrophic phenomena

called thermal shock.

You have this blistering
plasma ahead of you,

heating up the spacecraft,

and then you come into
the cool atmosphere below it.

That can really shock that

material and cause it
to buckle or break.

NARRATOR: To prevent disaster
in the skies,

engineers at the solar furnace
bombard the latest composites

with superheated beams,

testing them to destruction.

This is a highly efficient way
of using sunlight to

bring them up
to these temperatures

and see how they react.

NARRATOR: The destructive
power of the facility

seen from space
is also being used

to further mankind's
understanding of the cosmos.

This facility could be leading
us to the next phase of human

exploration of deep space
by helping develop

materials that allow us to go
into atmospheres like that of

Mars and survive
to tell the tale.

NARRATOR: Coming up,

Jeffrey Epstein's
mystery island lair.

What took place
on that island has

remained secret for
a very long time.

And attack of
the killer foam.

Touching this foam
can burn humans,

and it can strip
the paint off of cars.

[satellite beeps]

NARRATOR:
April 4th, 2017,

an Earth imaging satellite

scans a land mass
in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This is a beautiful
island in

the Caribbean with beaches
and blue waters.

There is one building
on this island

that's a little
strange, though.

WALTERS:
It's got this gold-domed roof,

and then on the kind of
ground in front of it

is kind of what looks
like mosaics.

I mean, there's
no other word for it.

It looks like a temple.

NARRATOR: The mosaics
are in a distinct

and intriguing pattern,

and there appeared to be
statues on the roof.

CARTER:
They were purposefully done.

Whoever had this
built intentionally

put those symbols on
the building.

NARRATOR: The structure is
strange enough,

but what's weirder
is who built it.

This is actually
an island owned

by none other than
Jeffrey Epstein.

NARRATOR: Notorious financier
and convicted sex offender

Jeffrey Epstein purchases

the 70-acre Little Saint James
Island for $8 million in 1988.

He hires a staff of 70
and uses the lavish villa on

its northern tip to host
a series of now notorious

private parties.

CARTER: Little Saint James has
some pretty terrible nicknames.

Island of Sin,
Orgy Island.

Given what we know about
Jeffrey Epstein, you have to be

suspicious about this island,
and in particular,

even more suspicious about
this isolated building

on the island.

NARRATOR: In 2019,
Epstein is arrested for

trafficking and sexual assault
of minors.

He dies in prison
awaiting trial.

Since then,
the island has been

a no-go zone patrolled
by armed guards.

The aerial images
offer a rare insight into

the mind of one of the 21st
century's most infamous people.

WALTERS: What took place
on that island has

remained secret
for a very long time.

This temple-like
structure, it could

be at the heart of
the whole Epstein mystery.

Historian Guy Walters
recognizes some

features of the strange
structure's design,

features which provides
disturbing clues

to why Epstein built it.

We are looking here
at something incredibly

similar to something
from the Middle East.

It's a kind of cube,

it's a rigidly square
rectangular structure.

It's got a curved dome.

This is really
reminiscent of bathhouses

that were built by
the Mamluks.

The Mamluks were
a fearsome caste of

warriors who ruled Egypt
and Syria for centuries.

Their name translates
as slave soldiers.

WALTERS: What's really chilling
when you consider

this building in relation
to the Mamluks

is the Mamluks
also had some pretty unsavory

habits themselves.

I mean, they would kidnap
young boys and force them to

become warriors,
but they would also kidnap

young girls and force them
into sexual slavery.

NARRATOR: Unlike the Mamluks,
there is no evidence that

the structure
in the image was used

as a kind of bathhouse.

But Walters has uncovered
accounts that provide

other clues to what
went on inside.

There's testimony
about soundproofing,

so there's an explanation.

Could be it's
a recording studio,

but I don't think Jeffrey
Epstein has known

to be a musician.

NARRATOR: Walters's
image analysis yields

more possible evidence.

You've also got this other
really sinister feature of this

path that kind of emerges
from the back of the hill.

Is it just a path to
a store room,

or is there some sort of
underground room where other

things can go on?

NARRATOR: The allegations of
sexual abuse against Epstein

are now a matter of
public record,

but none of his accusers have
spoken about what may

or may not have happened
inside his clifftop temple.

WALTERS: You don't wanna let
your imagination get the better

of you, because otherwise

it's gonna take you
to a very dark place indeed.

What we do know is
that Epstein

certainly lived in
those very dark places.

We've only scratched
the surface of the type

of horrors that may
have gone on here.

NARRATOR: Coming up,

white death.

SZULGIT: The river is thought
to have caused

more than 600 fatalities
over the last decade.

[satellite beeps]

NARRATOR:
March 27th, 2020.

Orbiting the Earth at a speed
of 16,800 miles per hour,

the WorldView-2
satellite scans

a riverside town in the central
Mexican state of Jalisco.

KOUROUNIS:
Looking a little closer,

there's definitely something
not right about this river.

What's weird about it is
that the river is white.

NARRATOR: White patches stretch
along several miles

of the Rio Santiago.

KOUROUNIS: Normally, when you
see white water,

you think rapids, but this is
not a mountainous area.

There's no rapids here.

So for some reason, the water
here is being discolored.

But why?

NARRATOR: Reports from
those living near

the weird white river provide
a disturbing clue.

They talk about massive fish
die off,

with thousands of them just
lying in the water.

And they say the stench at
times is completely unbearable.

NARRATOR: The death and stench
correspond to the appearance

of the white foamy substance
visible from space.

Local news reports actually
say that touching this foam

can burn humans,

and it can literally strip
the paint off of cars.

NARRATOR: Dozens of rivers
span the border

between Mexico
and the United States.

One, the New River,
has cost both

governments almost
$100 million to clean up,

and still the pollution
flows into America.

Samples here provide clues to
what has turned this stretch

of the Rio Santiago into
a foaming toxic river of death.

NUNO: There are more than
1,000 different chemicals

and heavy metals being dumped
into this river every year.

It includes phosphorus, lead,
to mercury and even cyanide.

NARRATOR: The effects of
this horrifying cocktail of

chemicals stretch well beyond
the Santiago's riverbanks.

SZULGIT: The river is thought
to have caused

more than 600 fatalities
over the last decade.

KOUROUNIS: The people living
along the river are forced to

live with cancer rates that are
nine times the Mexican average.

This place has been nicknamed
the Slow-Motion Chernobyl.

NARRATOR:
Just a generation ago,

the Rio Santiago
was teeming with life,

a tourist hot spot known
as the Mexican Niagara.

But it is now one of
the world's most

polluted rivers.

This area has seen somewhat of
an industrial boom,

and there are all kinds of
multinational corporations that

have set up shop
along the banks

of this river with their
processing plants and factories.

NARRATOR:
As the water moves downstream,

it flows past more than
300 large industries,

which have sprung up on

the river banks over
the past five decades.

SZULGIT: Paper mills,
pharmaceutical companies,

industries --
all of these can dump

ridiculous amounts of waste.

Where does it go?
straight into the river.

SCHUTTLER: On the days when
the foam really builds up

and starts to creep
and grow out of the river,

parents actually keep their
children locked up inside

the houses --
it's that dangerous.

NARRATOR: Lax official
regulations mean there's

no limit to how many
local industries can pump

waste into the Rio Santiago,

and the companies
are not obliged

to allow inspectors
into their facilities.

Authorities have ignored
the pollution for years,

but now it's starting
to catch up.

NARRATOR: Around 40% of local
children regularly

suffer from respiratory
illnesses or throat infections.

And the future for others
living near

the Slow-Motion Chernobyl
looks no less bleak.

SZULGIT: The mercury
and the arsenic in this water

is polluting entire food chains,

and those effects will be
for generations to come.

SCHUTTLER:
It is shockingly sad

that you can see pollution
from space.

This is something
we should be ashamed of.