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 competitor shows her tattoos at the MBK Tattoo Contest in a shopping mall in Bangkok October 23, 2014. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

In this handout image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), model runs from the Center for Tsunami Research at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory show the expected wave heights of the tsunami as it travels across the Pacific basin March 11, 2011. The largest wave heights are expected near the earthquake epicenter, off Japan. The wave will decrease in height as it travels across the deep Pacific but grow taller as it nears coastal areas. In general, as the energy of the wave decreases with distance, the near shore heights will also decrease (e.g., coastal Hawaii will not expect heights of that encountered in coastal Japan). (Photo by NOAA via Getty Images)

A female hippopotamus named “Mali”, which means Jasmine, eats fruits arranged to look like a cake during her 50th birthday celebration at Dusit Zoo in Bangkok, Thailand September 23, 2016. (Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters)

Mural of wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill wearing stockings and suspenders and giving the “V” sign by illusive local artist who goes by the name Horace, on the side of the Sandpiper guest house in Brighton on November 22, 2020. (Photo by Gareth Fuller/PA Images via Getty Images)

A girl struggles with winds from approaching Typhoon Matmo along the eastern coast of Keelung, northeastern Taiwan, Tuesday, July 22, 2014. (Photo by Wally Santana/AP Photo)

Desmond Boylan, a photographer who covered war and conflict across the world before dedicating his life to documenting the daily joys and tribulations of life in Cuba for Reuters and The Associated Press, died suddenly while on assignment on Saturday, December 29, 2018 afternoon in Havana. Here: Cuban President takes a glass during a ceremony in the Oporto Bourse where he and other Ibero-American leaders were made members of the Port Wine Brotherhood in Portugal, October 1998. (Photo by Desmond Boylan/Reuters)

A visitors to the National Galleries of Scotland view the work “A girl” of sculptor Ron Mueck on August 4, 2006 Edinburgh in Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)