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)

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)

Green Bay Packers' Johnathan Calvin rides a bike to NFL football training camp on July 27, 2017, in Green Bay, Wis. (Photo by Morry Gash/AP Photo)

Internally displaced Syrians who fled Raqqa tie ropes for their tents in a camp in Manbij, Syria on April 6, 2017. (Photo by Rodi Said/Reuters)

An armed police officer attends an explosive ordnance disposal training on April 12, 2022 in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China. (Photo by Yu Haiyang/VCG via Getty Images)

Zookeeper Agata holds a rare newborn Brazilian three-banded armadillo inside its enclosure at the Wroclaw Zoo in Wroclaw, Poland on May 11, 2023. The Tolypeutes matatus, or the southern armor also known as bolita or tatu-bola, is a fairly popular animal in South America but is increasingly rare. The new zoo child was born on March 23. The species is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and threatened by habitat loss and hunting. (Photo by Omar Marques/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A Palestinian rides with the body of an Israeli killed by Hamas militants in a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip fence in Gaza City, Saturday, October 7, 2023. (Photo by Abed Abu Reash/AP Photo)

A woman wearing a mask to help protect against the spread of coronavirus, tries to communicate with Efe, a cat living in Kugulu public garden, in Ankara, Turkey, Monday, November 30, 2020.Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced Monday the most widespread lockdown so far amid a surge in COVID-19 infections, extending curfews to weeknights and full lockdowns over weekends. (Photo by Burhan Ozbilici/AP Photo)