diff --git a/lib/internal/streams/transform.js b/lib/internal/streams/transform.js
index 26e0b07c2956c8..cbd23185fad291 100644
--- a/lib/internal/streams/transform.js
+++ b/lib/internal/streams/transform.js
@@ -196,6 +196,7 @@ Transform.prototype._write = function(chunk, encoding, callback) {
       wState.ended || // Backwards compat.
       length === rState.length || // Backwards compat.
       rState.length < rState.highWaterMark ||
+      rState.highWaterMark === 0 ||
       rState.length === 0
     ) {
       callback();
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-stream-passthrough-drain.js b/test/parallel/test-stream-passthrough-drain.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..f5c98947e21e2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-stream-passthrough-drain.js
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+'use strict';
+const common = require('../common');
+const { PassThrough } = require('stream');
+
+const pt = new PassThrough({ highWaterMark: 0 });
+pt.on('drain', common.mustCall());
+pt.write('hello');
+pt.read();