‘Fragrant Harbour’ is the transliteral meaning of Hong Kong. The name is said to come from the fragrant scent of its natural habitat of sub-tropical rainforests, and specifically the agarwood trees planted by the local population who believed them to be auspicious to the environment. Hong Kong developed into an important port city and an economic and international financial centre, governed by one colonial ruler and passed to another, and is often depicted as being situated at the point where “East meets West”. However, I would prefer to think of Hong Kong as being situated at the meeting point between the natural world and the man-made world. One only has to think of the iconic Victoria Harbour enclosed by the densely built commercial skyscrapers in all their architectural glory and the urban sprawl of residential blocks that light up at night – sitting behind what is left of the natural waters of the harbour and in front of green mountain ranges that was once the indigenous habitat of these islands. There is no starker illustration of the man-made conquering the natural world and a perseverance to effect that control, a realisation of the Chinese fable “Yugong Yishan” which describes a man’s mission to manually move a mountain rock by rock, an effort to be continued through the generations until all the mountain is finally moved.
These days, Hong Kong’s brightest engineering minds can build state-of-the-art airports, office buildings, shopping malls, bridges, railway lines, residential homes and so forth within a fraction of a decade, at the cost of reclaiming more and more of the natural islands and their ecosystems to serve an ever-growing population and their living needs. The colonisation of the natural world and of all that is unseen and undiscovered for the man-made will cause harm to the biodiversity of islands, and is at fundamental odds with any efforts to protect the natural world. At its core, the need to exploit the natural world and the desire to preserve it are concepts that fundamentally conflict.
Protection of nature’s freshwaters is an existential requirement for human survival that is being threatened by our own colonisation of the natural world. The law has an important role to play in limiting actions that harm our watercourses and to protect our heritage of freshwater biodiversity. As our knowledge of the science increases and as the law evolves, the efforts for protection will require a “decolonisation” of the natural world and a recalibration of our actions to prevent significant harm to watercourses. While this book primarily addresses the legal regulation of international watercourses in the protection of freshwater for an audience of international lawyers and scholars, I believe there is a role for international law to inform the governance of river basins at
As this book illustrates, international law not only regulates inter-State relations, activities, disputes and cooperation, but also reflects the progressions and norms in the governance of freshwater commons and management of upstream and downstream impacts. International law intrinsically evolves and the regime recognises its progressive development, which must include upholding the freshwater protection regime and the standards of positive action to bring about effective protection for future peace and water security. Changes to current practices are required not only so that the law can evolve to ensure human survival while providing for the conveniences of modern living, but also to fulfil our duty to balance living within the natural world.
This book is for Hong Kong and for all this city has given to me. I hope it can have a thriving, resilient and sustainable future.
Agnes Chong
University of Hong Kong, 2022