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)

Dancers learn choreography they will need to perform as part of an open audition for the 2022 Radio City Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall in New York, New York, USA, 18 April 2022. The open auditions, the first being held since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, were expected to draw nearly 900 dancers competing for one of the few open spots in the 2022 Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes, a long running holiday show. (Photo by Justin Lane/EPA/EFE)

Firefighters and emergency personnel climb the stairs during the Melbourne Firefighter Stair Climb at the Crown Metropol Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia, 10 September 2022. The Melbourne Firefighter Stair Climb features firefighters and emergency personnel climbing 28 flights of stairs wearing 25kgs of turnout gear to raise money for mental health. (Photo by Con Chronis/EPA/EFE)

Covered body is seen at the site of missile strike downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, October 10, 2022. Ukrainian officials report that at least eight people were killed and 24 wounded in the Ukrainian capital. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

A model presents a creation by Spanish designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada during the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Madrid, MBFWM, in Madrid, Spain, 16 September 2016. The MBFWM runs from 15 to 20 September 2016. (Photo by J.J. Guillen/EPA)

A man carries a woman across a river at Petit Goave where a bridge collapsed during the rains of the Hurricane Matthew, southwest of Port-au-Prince, October 5, 2016. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)

Two women cry in grief after armed assailants in a motorcycle shot their loved one in a main thoroughfare on July 23, 2016 in Manila, Philippines. The victim was an alleged drug peddler a claim disputed by his wife and maintained her husband is nothing more than a pedicab driver plying his trade when he was shot in front of her. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared a war on crime and drugs after winning the presidential elections on May 9, 2016. President Duterte has recently been living up to his nickname, “The Punisher”, as Philippine police have been conducting night time drug raids on almost a daily basis. (Photo by Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images)

A six-year-old acrobat performs on the opening of a tourist festival in Bozhou, Anhui province, China May 3, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)