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.
Why the fuck are they filling pools with freshwater?
Surfing pools, no less.
Ironically in a place where some of the best surfing in the world can happen if you go to the ocean, which is all around.
To make it more attractive to tourists and easier to clean, I’d guess.
I hope the people can sue successfully, since state govt seems stacked towards colonialist endeavours.
BYOW, we use ours for the pool.
Aside from all the other issues, I can’t even imagine the psychological toll it must take being aware that you’re surrounded by non-potable water during a water crisis.
I can’t speak for a long-lived crisis, but about 7 years ago I lived in the boondocks and got flooded-in. Had about a 75-ft radius of dry immediately around my house and the rest muddy flood water. Waters receded after a day or two, but my house relied on well water but had no power for 6 days to be able to pump it. The situation was…not great.
Cannot imagine the stress of that being a mostly permanent fact of life.
I mean, I’d just get on with creating my own filter system these days, how many thousands do I need?
Hawaii could just put in desalination plants! How much could that possibly cost?
Probably so much that this article didn’t even discuss Pacific islands, but…
Considering the mainland costs from the article of a 25 million gallon per day in NA ($60-$100 million) and a quick Google search says that Hawaii uses about 196 million gallons a day, if they just went to 200 million gallons of water in desalination plants, it would be somewhere between 480 million and $800 million.
Cheap!
What’s the cost if they run out of drinking water on the island?
What private corporation is going to agree to build enough desalination plants to do something about it quickly enough at a price the Hawaiian government can afford?
Unfortunately, we live in a capitalist system. That means the cost of them running out of drinking water is too fucking bad, just die.
Fuck Zuckerberg and fuck Oprah for making thise much worse. Leave Hawaii to the Hawaiians.
Don’t forget Larry Ellison, who owns 98% of Lana’i.
True, but he’s at least “letting” the families stay there and keeping most everyone else out.
Sovereignity for Hawaii!!!
The United States colonized Hawaii on behalf of rich plantation owners. The United States has already acknowledged that the occupation was illegal. You don’t need to fly across the world to have a good time, and fuck up someone else’s home.
Tax the billionaires
healthy lo’i [water taro] system needs about 250,000 gallons per day per acre for it to be healthy
probably doesnt help at all. maybe grow things that are less water intensive?
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.
