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)

A member of Team USA (L) recovers USA's Anita Alvarez (C), from the bottom of the pool during an incendent in the women's solo free artistic swimming finals, during the Budapest 2022 World Aquatics Championships at the Alfred Hajos Swimming Complex in Budapest on June 22, 2022. (Photo by Peter Kohalmi/AFP Photo)

Pakistani civil society activists release lanterns into the sky in Lahore on December 15, 2016, as they pay tribute to victims on the second anniversary of an attack on The Army Public School in the city of Peshawar. Taliban militants attacked on Pakistani Army Public School in Peshawar, killing 151 people mostly children on December 16, 2014. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)

Brittnai of El Paso, Texas, USA, performs in the Professional Division Competition during the 5th Annual US Pole Dance Championship on April 1, 2017 at the Symphony Space Theater in New York City. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP Photo)

A man feeds monkeys at Longchi scenic area, in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province, China May 24, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

An invalis asking alms walks past a girl posing for the picture in the center of Ukrainian capital of Kiev on August 17, 2016. (Photo by Sergei Supinsky/AFP Photo)

A paddler races in a giant pumpkin during the annual regatta on Lake Pisiquid in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Sunday, October 11, 2015. Participants hollow out the massive gourds and pilot them across the 500 meter course. (Photo by Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press via AP Photo)