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)

Chinese women ride a bicycle together on a street September 10, 2014 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Located in Kunshan, eastern China, the restaurant relies on over a dozen machines for tasks such as greeting customers, waiting on tables and cooking basic meals. The eatery becomes the third café in the world to rely on the use of robot employees, potentially giving a glimpse into how future businesses could operate. Photo: This photo taken on August 13, 2014, shows a robot carrying food to customers in a restaurant in Kunshan. It's more teatime than Terminator – a restaurant in China is electrifying customers by using more than a dozen robots to cook and deliver food. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)

Child models present creations at Dong Wenmei T100 Children's Collection during China Fashion Week in Beijing October 29, 2014. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Fish are thrown onto a truck during a winter fishing festival held on the frozen Wulungu Lake in Fuhai county, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, January 18, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

In this photo released by Xhinhua News Agency, a rescuer evacuates residents near the site of a chemical plant blast in Zhangzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province Tuesday, April 7, 2015. Six people have been hospitalized and hundreds of firefighters deployed to battle a blaze sparked by an explosion at Goure PX Plant that produces the toxic chemical paraxylene, officials said Tuesday. (Photo by Wei Peiquan/AP Photo/Xinhua)

Rice seedling festival is a traditional folk festival in longji, guangxi, China on June 9, 2019, during grain in ear season. (Photo by Costfoto/Barcroft Media)

People spend the summer at Qingdao seaside in Shandong, China on July 3, 2019. The maximum temperature of Qingdao beach was 26 degrees Celsius on that day, and all the 9 sea bathing places were open, attracting a large number of visitors to the seaside to enjoy the cool world. (Photo by Huang Jiexian/ZUMA Press)