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)

Afghan women and a boy make their way in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, November 15, 2015. (Photo by Rahmat Gul/AP Photo)

People struggle with umbrellas while walking against strong wind, as Typhoon Koinu approaches, in Hong Kong, China on October 8, 2023. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

A participant in a tiger-themed costume walks during the “bakeneko” or supernatural cat festival as a Halloween parade in the Kagurazaka district of Tokyo on October 13, 2024. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)

Liu Yang, China's first female astronaut, waves during a departure ceremony at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, on June 16, 2012. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters via The Atlantic)

Dressed up participants run at the “Course de la Marmite” during the 46th Escalade Race (Course de l'Escalade) in Geneva, Switzerland, 07 December 2024. (Photo by Martial Trezzini/EPA/EFE)

A Palestinian man plays with a horse at the beach of the Mediterranean Sea in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday October 1, 2021. The beach is one of the few open public spaces in this densely populated city. (Photo by Hatem Moussa/AP Photo)

Miners search for jade stones at a mine dump at a Hpakant jade mine in Kachin state, Myanmar November 25, 2015. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)