A man covered with mineral-rich mud smiles on a bank of lake Tus in Khakassia region, southwest of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, July 16, 2016. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Aerial view of a boat working in the green water of Taihu Lake covered by blue-green algae, Wuxi city, Jiangsu province, China on May 23, 2018. (Photo by Imaginechina/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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)

Renee LeGrand, of Foothill Ranch, Calif., takes a picture among wildflowers in bloom Monday, March 18, 2019, in Lake Elsinore, Calif. About 150,000 people flocked over the weekend to see this year's rain-fed flaming orange patches of poppies lighting up the hillsides near Lake Elsinore, a city of about 60,000 residents. The crowds became so bad Sunday that Lake Elsinore officials closed access to poppy-blanketed Walker Canyon. By Monday the #poppyshutdown announced by the city on Twitter was over and the road to the canyon was re-opened. (Photo by Gregory Bull/AP Photo)

The colourful process of salt harvesting is captured at the Hon Khoi Salt Fields in Nha Trang, Vietnam in December 2022. (Photo by Hilton Chen/Solent News & Photo Agency)

English television personality Georgia Harrison is seen attending House of CB Christmas Party at Old Sessions House on November 29, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Ricky Vigil M/Justin E Palmer/GC Images)

Luxury buildings are reflected in front of houses at a lake dwelling also known as or palafitte or “Palafito” in Recife, Brazil, March 1, 2016. Zika has spread most rapidly in the urban squalor of Brazil's northeastern coastal cities like Recife. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

A woman steers her stand-up paddle board using an umbrella as a sail at Ladoga lake near the city of Olonets, 300 kilometers (186 miles) north-east of St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, July 22, 2022. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)