Geopolitics, territorial governance and the making of water supply system: The case of cold war Hong Kong, 1949-1979

This paper draws on the idea of territorial governance from recent political geography scholarship to analyze the making of water supply system. It revisits the literature on water politics that sheds light on the interplay between the production of ecology and the construction of scale. It then suggests that an investigation on the socio-ecological and scaling interactions cannot lose sight of state’s vision which considers territory as a coherent unit of strategic intervention. Hence the theoretical framework deals with the strategy that the state territorializes by optimizing the use of lands and water resources. The case study maps the Cold War geopolitical condition that colonial Hong Kong faced during the 1949-1979 period and the efforts of the government in maintaining its status as an independent city-state vis-à-vis China. It explores the constraints set on water allocation and land resources within the tiny territory to achieve the necessary but contradictory goals that aimed to forestall the geopolitical challenges. It further demonstrates how a compromise of goals in territorial management was achieved. First, a self-sufficient water supply system was created to preserve Hong Kong’s water security, upheld the effectiveness of British colonial rule. Second, farming was sustained to solve the surplus labor problem, ensure rural stability and avoid giving China an excuse to demand the retrocession of the colony. Copyright © 2020 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.