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)

Gorillas at Royal Burgers’ Zoo, Arnhem, Netherlands, on November 28, 2013. (Photo by Vidi Photo/Startraks Photo New York)

A man sits on top of a car as he is stranded on a flooded street in Tianjin, China, July 20, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Tourists dressed like astronauts visit Ulan Hada Volcano Geopark on February 13, 2024 in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. (Photo by Mao Jianjun/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

A patient solves a rubik's cube at a temporary hospital converted from “Wuhan Livingroom” in central China's Hubei Province on February 10, 2020. In face of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, Wuhan authorities have transformed public venues such as exhibition centers and gymnasiums into temporary hospitals. The hospitals have a large capacity of treating patients with mild symptoms and play an important role in isolating the source of infection and cutting off the routes of infection during epidemic prevention. The first batch of patients was hospitalized on Feb. 5. (Photo by Chine Nouvelle/SIPA Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Tourists in traditional costumes visit a rose garden during a rose cultural festival on April 27, 2021 in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province of China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

A farmer harvests apples at an apple orchard on October 10, 2020 in Yiyuan County, Shandong Province of China. (Photo by Zhao Dongshan/VCG via Getty Images)

In this undated photo, the aerial view of Jingxing Bridge in autumn is shown, with trees turning red around and the West Lake going under it, in Hangzhou city, east China's Zhejiang province on November 18, 2020. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)