‘Unpolluted, untouched’: why In Lieu is sourcing ‘premium water’ from Henan, explains start-up founder and CEO Joanne Zhou, offering Hong Kong consumers a more sustainable, healthy choice

“Tap water, purified water, distilled water – these are the most prevalent and common choices in Hong Kong,” says Joanne Zhou. Founder and CEO of start-up In Lieu, Zhou wants to supplement our shop-bought options with what she says is the city’s first premium sustainable water brand.

Having launched In Lieu in February, Zhou cites studies about the rising rates of chronic illnesses in young people as the main reason why we should start paying more attention to this humble yet vital elixir of life. “People are shifting their behaviour,” says Zhou. “Gen Z, millennials are embracing sobriety. The health and wellness trend is booming. And people started to realise they’re getting sick easily, dealing with a lot of stress and looking for solutions.”

In Lieu, which has a growing footprint with partnerships and placements at Art Central, as well as with the Midnight Runners community in Hong Kong, was born largely in response to these concerns. After working in the US – where water options are more plentiful, and even celebrities like Beyoncé and Jaden Smith have joined the business – Zhou came back to Hong Kong to find that much of the drinking water on our store shelves is distilled and therefore devoid of the naturally occurring minerals that make it good for you. Still other shop-bought water is “mineralised” – distilled or otherwise purified, with certain minerals added.

“Some bottled waters don’t differ too much from tap water,” Zhou says. “For the two major brands we know from Hong Kong, they just source their water from the tap system everyone gets from home, which is Dongjiang East River water from China – then use their facility to process and bottle it.”

A homonym of l’eau (French for “water”), the Chinese word liu (meaning “stream” or “flow”; it’s actually pronounced “lyoh”) provided inspiration for the brand’s name. And since the phrase “in lieu” means “instead of”, the brand’s name serves as a succinct mission statement. As opposed to artificially processed options, Zhou hopes that today’s more discerning, health-conscious consumers will opt for In Lieu’s “unpolluted, untouched” water sourced from an underground aquifer in China’s Dabie Mountains, in Henan province. “From source to bottling, no human touch, no nothing,” she says.

Zhou says not all water is created equal. “It’s so easy for [European consumers] to get quality water,” she says. “They can just [turn on] the tap. If you live in the Alps, the cleanest water comes out, versus here, [where] most of the water needs to be processed and people don’t have the privilege to appreciate high-quality water.”