(Re)producing uneven waterscapes in South China: the materiality and spatiality of the Dongshen inter‐basin water supply project

Abstract This paper explores the production and reproduction of changing hydrosocial dynamics in South China since the construction of the Dongshen Water Supply Project (DWSP), an inter‐basin water transfer that supplies approximately 70% to 80% of freshwater from Mainland China to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Drawing on the idea of the waterscape, I conceptualise the DWSP as an embodiment of power and socio‐environmental relations, encompassing a wide array of physical objects, institutions, and agencies. I show that, on one hand, the DWSP has expanded, improved, and renewed its physical forms over the past six decades and intertwined with various institutional and administrative changes that consolidate its role. On the other hand, the materialisation of the DWSP has been associated with diverging spatial configurations in both water‐exporting and water‐receiving areas. That has exacerbated disparities in water access, conservation responsibilities, and socioeconomic opportunities, perpetuating uneven waterscapes. This historical‐material examination of the DWSP provides a nuanced understanding of how power and social relations can manifest through water and how hydraulic infrastructure is intimately linked with development, governance, and inequalities over space and time.