Since the early 1980s, Hong Kong has enjoyed a reliable, year-round, uninterrupted supply of good quality water through the import of freshwater from the nearby East River (Dongjiang).  Being used to enjoying the convenience of obtaining cheap and clean water with a simple turn of the tap, we may not be aware that Hong Kong is inherently a water-short city.

Rapid socio-economic development within the Pearl River Delta region has led to an increasing demand, and an intensified competition, for water in the past two decades.  In other major cities, per capita daily water consumption level in the 2001 – 2015 period has declined or flattened.  On the contrary, Hong Kong’s daily per capita water consumption continued to increase during the same period, albeit at very slow rates.

Launched in 2016, Jockey Club Water Initiative on Sustainability and Engagement (JC-WISE) is a project funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and hosted by the Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong. In 2019, JC-WISE was extended for another 3 years. Through cross-sectoral collaborations, it aims to raise the public’s awareness, and appreciation, of the importance of attaining long-term water sustainability goals for Hong Kong.

Through multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional and cross-sectoral collaborations, JC-WISE aims at elevating the level of public awareness of the importance of water conservation and sustainability by:

• enhancing the understanding of the multiple values of water through re-connecting the public with our rivers; and
• recognising the impacts of consumption behaviour on local and distant freshwater resources through the Water Footprint concept, the first such innovative and evidence-based campaign in Hong Kong.