In Hawaii, one of the most important sayings is ola i ka wai, “water is life” — a phrase that not only sums up what it means to exist on an island, but what it means to live, period. But now, one of the largest of the island chain’s land masses is facing a triple threat to its sole freshwater source, and if it isn’t addressed soon, one community member says, “we’re in deep trouble.”
Despite being surrounded by seemingly endless ocean, freshwater on Oahu, the third-largest of Hawaii’s six major islands, is not easily accessible. The island relies on an underground aquifer for its water supply. Replenishing that aquifer is a decades-long natural process, as it takes a single drop of water roughly 25 years to make it there from the sky.
And recent years have seen compounding problems: less rain, leading to significant droughts, and repeated jet fuel leaks and PFAS chemical spills contaminating water systems. All of this significantly limits available water use for locals, many of whom say tourism is only worsening the situation. Just months ago, the world’s largest surfing wave pool opened up on the island — filled with freshwater.
I’d like to add some context as some people may take a misinformed meaning from this.
Lo’i are a small part of the deeply rooted native Hawaiian cultural tradition.
This culture integrates the idea of environmental responsibility so deeply that it is hard to describe in one comment.
For example, the Kingdom was divided into narrow triangles starting in the mountain and ending at the sea. Chiefs were responsible for the entire slice of the ecosystem. Fresh water was considered a sacred resource and being greedy would literally get you beaten to death.
Lo’i function to reduce erosion and the taro family was the staple crop of the islands before colonization. These work by constantly flowing water through them. You divert part of a stream, irrigate your shallow ponds, and return the water to the stream.
The rest of the article this comment doesn’t mention is how rainfall is becoming more sporadic - more dry days, and more heavy rain days where the water has no time to enter the watershed and just pours into the ocean.
While there is absolutely merit in adapting our current techniques to current conditions, this is ignoring the brutal colonization that killed over 90% of native Hawaiians and to this day diverts the profit produced by local labor back to the mainland while burning every last resource down.
There used to be entire forests of sandalwood there.