Workers clear rubbish and algae from the Jin river, which is part of the Yangtze river system, Chengudu, in Sichuan province in May. The damage done to the Yangtze, a lifeline for tens of millions of people, by pollution is almost irreversible.
Taking out dead fish at a fishery in Wuhan, Hubei province, after a sewage leak at a nearby factory started killing fish on a large scale. Decades of breakneck industrialisation and lax enforcement of environmental regulations have left the country with increasingly polluted water.
A farmer walks on a dry river bed in Mianyang, in Sichuan province, on June 6. Prolonged drought in mountainous Sichuan has left nearly four million people short of drinking water.
