Waterworks in Hawaii: How Colonial Management Fails

Lauren Richards

Lecturer Zen Dochterman

WRIT 150

29 November 2021

Waterworks in Hawaii: How Colonial Management Fails

Sit beside a streambank of old Hawai’i. It’s hot today; Hawaii is comfortably close to the equator, afterall. Go ahead, dip your hand into the water before you. Despite the tropical weather, the stream has retained the coolness from its trek down the shaded mountain. As you submerge your palm in the water, your hand brushes the polished shell of the pipiwai limpet. Or, unluckily for you and your fingertips (I assume you’re quite attached), you might instead encounter the pincer of an ‘ōpae ‘oeha’a prawn. I sincerely apologize; nurse your wounds now, and as you do, turn your attention downstream. See where the water runs into the ‘auwai (irrigation ditched), and into the lo’i (taro patches). Hala trees and flowering ilie`e secure the natural rock and dirt banks of this waterway on its course to the sea. If you can rouse your imagination, perhaps you can visualize where the stream empties into the ocean. Sun glints off the silvery tops of kalo plants and the flowing ‘auwai before you. It’s nice, isn’t it? Rest assured, no mosquito disturbs your viewing experience either; those wouldn’t grace the islands with their blood-borne diseases and general petulance until the 1800s. Now, let’s revisit the same spot in the present. Sunlight no longer reflects from freshwater. Today, it reflects from aluminum car hoods, the sides of polished glass buildings, maybe even a bald tourist’s well-sunscreened scalp. The stream that once wandered the land beneath your feet has long since withered away, blocked or diverted somewhere upstream. Hotels, restaurants, and apartments have replaced the lo’i and rows of pili-grass houses. This urbanized sprawl certainly holds its own sense of beauty; nonetheless, it remains an exterminator of the natural world. Of course, my depiction of old Hawaii and its natural splendor is romanticized (I concede, maybe to the point of literary fiction). The concept of unimpeded stream flow from mountain to sea, however, remains accurate to Hawaiian land practices. This central tenet is no longer true among modern residents of the islands, dramatically reshaping the look of the land.

While travel guides may extol modern Hawaii for its city and its nature, urbanization (particularly on Oahu) has significantly diminished the island’s natural beauty. The unaltered stream, for example, has become a near-fable. In fact, “90% of Hawaii’s streams” encounter some form of diversion over the course of their flow (Kozacek, “Hawaii River Restorations”). Similarly, watercourses that resisted disappearing often sustain some type of construction. While figures vary across islands, on Oahu (the most population-dense of all eight), almost 100% of streams are “lined, straightened, or otherwise channelized” (Schuler, “Uncovering the Potential”). Beyond aesthetic considerations (ie loss of instagramable photoshoot locations), these stream diversions also wreak havoc on island ecology.

For one, altering flow threatens Hawaii’s native animals. Take the aforementioned pipiwai; habitat diversion has relegated the once-common limpet to a rarity in its own waterways (Thomas, “Where Flows the Water”). As an amphidromous species, the pipiwai commutes from upstream breeding grounds to seaside estuaries over its lifespan. This means their survival depends exclusively on “unimpeded access to and from the ocean” (Brasher, 1054). The vast majority of Hawaii’s native stream species also fall under this amphidromous classification; their numbers are similarly threatened with the island’s troubled waterways (1052). Current estimates of remaining local populations are unclear; however, it is clear that modern stream alterations have “created habitats that are more suitable for introduced species than for native species” (1058). A survey counting invertebrates (including the pipiwai) across “seven watersheds on Oahu’’, for example, found only “5% were native” (1058). Stream diversions both jeopardize local creatures and allow invasive species to flourish in once-native species. I’m not constructing a clever allegory for colonialism (although it could be): the simple reality of stream diversion is it wreaks havoc on threatened species and their breeding rituals.

Beyond its interference in aquatic bedroom business, stream diversions further affect the islands’ water health. Streams perpetuate the water cycle. They both enable water to “seep deep into the underground” (thus “recharging the watershed and underground aquifers”) as well as deliver water to its origin in the sea (Jacob, “From Waterfalls to Walls”). Any alteration to this natural process impedes aquifer recovery. For Hawaii’s 1.5 million human residents, this spells water insecurity. The entire island relies on the aquifer system for freshwater (Kobayashi, “What is the Current State”). Optimistic predictions show Hawaii’s “decreasing aquifer levels” and climate change-induced conditions will equate to strain within the next 100 years (Kobayashi). In short, streams perform an irreplaceable role within Hawaii’s island ecosystem. Damaging the stream disables the water cycle. Where older land management systems preserved stream integrity, therefore sustaining the water cycle, the modern water philosophy destroys it.

How did this modern system, which is so at odds with the needs of both the land and its people, come to be? Of course, as is often the answer (especially in Hawaii), colonialism is heavily to blame. Starting in the 1860s, a “series of Hawaii Supreme Court decisions” privatized “Hawaii’s surface water resources”, sustaining the burgeoning Western-facilitated sugar cane industry (Maclennon, 500). This marked a drastic departure from Hawaiian’s communal view of water. A landmark 1973 would somewhat reverse this shift; it “recognized the “public trust” in water rights and acknowledged that water is a community interest to be controlled by the government” (Maclennon). At this point, however, irrigation systems diverting “nearly all available steam water” on the islands to “sugar cane fields” had long-since been established (Maclennon). While Hawaii’s last sugar cane plantation closed in 2016, these systems remain. This colonial legacy of land management, however, does not necessitate its endurance. Using the public trust doctrine, local groups have found some successes in restoring water flow (expand).

• Also failures; corporate interest in water wins over the petitions of the people
• Water does not go to anything or sustain anything — some allegations that current private water holders is alec and baldwin “waste” water

Similarly, Native groups across the US have faced similar frustrations in applying the public trust doctrine. (global perspective: how other Native people have used the public trust doctrine and still faced similar failures — the colorado river, gov. building more dams despite depleting water + relationship to water rights of tribes along the river; reflects antiquated water management in the US in general, where there are little long-term considerations of water management/development — sharp contrast with Hawaiian values of preservation, native values of preservation in general//contrast between Western and Native relationship with the land)

(discussion of Inegenous-led ecological restoration)

(fixing Hawaii’s water troubles: restore streams by blending Hawaiian perspectives of water management/ahupua’a with current water systems; integrate streams into urban landscapes, as proposed in downtown Oahu)

• counterargument that restoring streams → tourist attraction

(still approaches the contentious topic of arbitrating Native rights, US government)

Works Cited

Brasher, Anne M.D. “Impacts of Human Disturbances on Biotic Communities in Hawaiian

Streams.” BioScience, vol. 53, no. 11, Nov. 2003, pp. 1052–1060, https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2003)053[1052:IOHDOB]2.0.CO;2. Accessed 25 Nov 2021.

Jacob, Laren Finley. “From Waterfalls to Walls.” Peace and Justice Studies Association,

https://www.peacejusticestudies.org/chronicle/from-waterfalls-to-walls/. Accessed 21 November 2021.

Kobayashi, Larry. “What is the Current State of Fresh Water Supplies in Honolulu and Oahu:

Will We Have Enough Water for the Future?” Hawaii First Water, 12 Sept. 2014, https://hawaiifirstwater.org/what-is-the-current-state-of-fresh-water-supplies-in-honolulu-and-oahu-will-we-have-enough-water-for-the-future-2/. Accessed 18 Nov 2021.

Kozacek, Codi. “Hawaii River Restorations Reflect National Desire to Protect Water for Public

Benefit.” Circle of Blue, 28 Oct. 2014, https://www.circleofblue.org/2014/world/hawaii-river-restorations-emblematic-national-efforts-protect-water-public-benefit/. Accessed 22 November 2021.

Maclennan, Carol A. “Wai: Indigenous Water, Industrial Water in Hawai`i.” Organization &

Environment, vol. 20, no. 4, 2007, pp. 497–505. ProQuest, http://libproxy.usc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/wai-indigenous-water-industrial-hawai-i/docview/1928278352/se-2?accountid=14749, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1086026607309389.

Papacostas, C. S. “Traditional Water Rights, Ecology and the Public Trust Doctrine in Hawaii.”

Water Policy, vol. 16, no. 1, 2014, pp. 184–196. ProQuest, http://libproxy.usc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/traditional-water-rights-ecology-public-trust/docview/1943074696/se-2?accountid=14749, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wp.2013.182.

Schuler, Thomas A. “Uncovering the Potential of Honolulu’s Hidden Streams.” Next City, 22

Aug. 2016,

https://nextcity.org/features/view/honolulu-sustainable-development-auwai-howard-hugh\

es. Accessed 20 November 2021.

Thomas, Laura Lucas. “Where Flows the Water of Kane?” Civil Beat, 21 Jul. 2021,

https://www.civilbeat.org/2017/07/where-flows-the-water-of-kane/. Accessed 23 November 2021.