Growing cities, overuse of fertilizers and factory wastewater have degraded China's water supplies to the extent that half the nation's rivers and lakes are severely polluted. China aims to spend $850 billion to improve filthy water supplies over the next decade, but even such huge outlays may do little to reverse damage caused by decades of pollution and overuse in Beijing's push for rapid economic growth. Photo: Fishermen row a boat in the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui province, June 19, 2009. (Photo by Jianan Yu/Reuters)

A girl stretches next to a pram on the embankment of the Moskva river in Moscow on October 18, 2018. The European part of Russia enjoys an unusually warm weather for the season with temperatures reaching up to 22 degrees centigrade. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

A protester is taken away by police during an electoral campaign closing rally of Spain's far-right party VOX in Madrid, Spain on April 26, 2019. (Photo by Juan Medina/Reuters)

A woman walks past servicemen of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), who take part in a rehearsal for the Victory Day parade in Donetsk, Ukraine on May 3, 2018. (Photo by Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Indonesia's Mount Sinabung erupts, sending a column of volcanic materials as high as 16,000 feet into the sky on August 10, 2020. The volcano, one of two currently erupting in Indonesia, was dormant for four centuries before exploding in 2010, killing two people. Another eruption in 2014 killed 16 people, while seven died in a 2016 eruption. (Photo by Sutanta Aditya/Abaca/Sipa USA via AP Images)

Dancers take part in the World Salsa Festival at El Pueblo Coliseum in Cali, Colombia, 26 September 2025. (Photo by Ernesto Guzman Jr./EPA)

People take part in the annual LGBTQ Pride parade in Bangkok, Thailand on June 4, 2023. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Eleonora Brunacci and Mariano Di Vaio walk the red carpet ahead of the “Racer And The Jailbird (Le Fidele)” screening during the 74th Venice Film Festival at Sala Grande on September 8, 2017 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)