Over 2,200 pigs were found dead in a Shanghai river, one of the city's main water sources, in early March.
A boy swims in the algae-filled coastline of Qingdao, Shandong province.
Two illegal chemical plants that were discharging their production waste water into the rain sewer pipes allegedly caused the Jianhe River in Luoyang, Henan province to turn red in December 2011.
Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui province, is one of the eight rivers and lakes in China that the country plans to treat under a $7.4 billion construction plan.
A child swims in a polluted reservoir, southwest of China's Guizhou province, in September 2006.
A dead fish floats in water filled with blue-green algae at the East Lake in Wuhan, Hubei province August 20, 2012.
A manufacturer of screws and nuts is situated next to a polluted river in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province.
Polluted water from a rare earth smelting plant spews into a tailings dam near Xinguang Village. China supplies 97 percent of rare earths used worldwide, which are used for magnets, bearings and high-tech components that go into computers, vehicles and, increasingly, clean energy technology such as wind turbines and hybrid cars.
Fishermen clean up oil near a major northern Chinese port after a pipeline blast leaked more than 1,600 tons of heavy crude into the sea in July 2010.
A fisherman sits on top of a drain at a polluted canal in central Beijing.
A fisherman scoops up algae-filled water from Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui province, June 16, 2009.
Dead fish are seen floating on a polluted river in Hefei, Anhui province.
Fishermen walk through the muddy bottom of a polluted canal collecting fish in central Beijing.
A woman walks on a bridge over a polluted river at a suburban area of Wenzhou, in Zhejiang province.
A sewage leak from a copper mine polluted a river and reservoir in July 2010, poisoning more than 4 billion pounds of fish.
Workers clean up floating garbage on the Yangtze River near the Three Gorges reservoir in November 2009.
Dead fish, attributed to sewage, are seen at a pond on the outskirts of Wuhan, Hubei province on April 21, 2009.
Children fish in a polluted river covered with algae in Hefei, east China's Anhui province, July 18, 2006.
Potentially lethally polluted river water heads toward Harbin, one of China's largest cities at 9 million people, after an explosion at a petrochemical plant in November 2005.
Gnats cover railings along the East Lake in Wuhan, Hubei province in November 2009. The small flies appear in the lake because of water pollution and will leave when the temperature drops.
A resident washes clothes in a polluted pond in Xiangfan, Hubei province, March 21, 2010.
A man swims in a canal polluted with algae blooms caused by heat, in the center of Beijing on August 16, 2007.
A fisherman jumps from his boat to the bank after fishing in the morning at a polluted river in Hefei, in east China's Anhui province, March 8, 2007.
Water pollution is a worldwide problem.
