Ordinary Gweilo

Interesting article, but….

‘If you’re flushing the toilet with grey water, people should know’: how China turned rain into an asset

In 1995 the Chinese Communist party (CCP) hosted China’s first modern-day national seminar of rainwater utilisation in Lanzhou, a dry northern city that abuts the Gobi desert. In the following decades, URWH started to be incorporated into official engineering codes, with the 2008 Olympics being the perfect opportunity to showcase these designs. As Yu’s “sponge city” concept grew in popularity in the 2010s, and was adopted as an official strategy by the Chinese government in 2014, URWH became fundamental to China’s national planning. Now, the government’s official target is for 70% of rainfall in sponge cities to be reused.

I suppose I shouldn’t expect Hong Kong to be mentioned, but it has been a pioneer in this for over 60 years.

This article says that “seawater supply (is available) to about 85% of the population of Hong Kong and it has a map showing that it covers the areas where most people live. This pdf (sorry) says that “85% of Hong Kong’s population uses seawater for toilet flushing” (which might not be correct) and advocates a switch from seawater to recycled – which does seem to be in place

As the above article explains, that needs a separate system of pipes to be installed, but that’s been a requirement for new buildings since 1965 (pdf) – if seawater or recycled is not available you have to pay for fresh water (there’s no charge for seawater).