The 60-Year-Old Water Deal That Keeps Hong Kong Alive
Every day, Hong Kong flushes 750 million liters of seawater down its toilets. That’s not an accident — it’s a lifeline born from a 1963 crisis when the city had only 43 days of fresh water left. The solution? A pipeline from mainland China, negotiated by Zhou Enlai during his own country’s worst famine. This is the story of how geopolitical solidarity turned into the world’s most ingenious urban water system.