A river that seals bonds

Hong Kong and Jiangxi province have forged a special relationship, with residents at the source of the Dongjiang River going all-out to protect the quality of the water that Hong Kong imports from the Chinese mainland. Li Bingcun reports from Shenzhen.

People fall in love for no reason. For Wen Wenshu, a 28-year-old ambitious man from a mountainous town in Jiangxi province, there was a reason: Dongjiang, the mother river.

The Dongjiang River — the eastern tributary of the Pearl River in Guangdong province from which Hong Kong gets the bulk of its water supply — has not only helped foster deeper collaboration between the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the mainland in the past few decades, but it has also brought romance for people on both sides of the border.

Wen met his love, Kwan, a 29-year-old from Hong Kong, who was sent to Wen's hometown, Xunwu county, to help conserve the environment around the headwaters of the Dongjiang River.

In 2010, Wen, then a high school student, began to volunteer in a tree planting project organized by Kwan's organization — Friends of the Earth, a green group in Hong Kong.

After Hong Kong had suffered a long dry spell in the 1960s that caused a severe drought and water shortage, the city began a water supply program that runs through southern Jiangxi into Guangdong, providing Hong Kong with most of the fresh water it needs.

To ensure a steady supply of fresh water, Hong Kong has been importing Dongjiang water since 1965 with the full support of the central government. Aided by a large-scale water supply system between Shenzhen and the HKSAR, millions of cubic meters of Dongjiang water have been pumped into Hong Kong each year, contributing about 80 percent of the city's fresh water supply.

Chow Kwan, a 92-year-old Hong Kong resident, recalled that during the drought, people had to wait for up to four days to get fresh water. He said that every drop of water was so precious that taking a shower was a luxury. They used their hands to wipe off sweat.

Because of the irregular supply, many people had to stop working to save water. They would use anything available to collect water, including buckets made of wooden planks tied together. Chow still remembers the joy of being able to bathe every day after Hong Kong began getting its Dongjiang water supply. He said that the cross-border water project was completed at a time when the mainland was facing economic hardship. Many Hong Kong people were moved by the nation's support.

In return, Friends of the Earth launched a tree-planting program between 2009 and 2017, sending volunteers to Xunwu to plant trees with the help of local residents.