Behind the Water Shortage in Maui Island, Hawaii, USA: A Battle for Water Rights: West Maui Land Company | Company | Water Rights
In the Maui Island fire in Hawaii, the lack of water has become an unavoidable major issue in fire rescue efforts. Why is there no water to extinguish the fire? Behind the "water shortage" is a prolonged battle between the Hawaiian indigenous people of Maui and new "colonizers" over local water rights.
On the 17th, The Guardian of the UK raised a question: Throughout the island of Maui, there are lush golf courses everywhere, luxury hotels are filled with swimming pools, and businesses hoard water to sell to luxury estates. But why did the water pipe dry up when it was time to put out the fire? Can't squeeze out a drop of water?
![Behind the Water Shortage in Maui Island, Hawaii, USA: A Battle for Water Rights: West Maui Land Company | Company | Water Rights](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/40aeea7c94e2271ea96d31bb326d5625.jpg)
The report states that for over a century, water in the western region of Maui has been being exploited by outsiders for profit: initially the owners of large sugarcane plantations, now large corporations have become their successors, including a real estate developer named West Maui Land Company and its subsidiaries. The report states that these large companies have devoured the natural resources on the island and caused significant damage to the local water resources.
Not only that, after the Maui wildfire, the West Maui Land Company also disclosed to the media that the company had written a letter to the water resources management department of Hawaii before the fire swept through La Haina on the 8th, requesting to extract water from a local river and transfer it to a private reservoir of the company for use by the fire department when deploying helicopters to extinguish the fire. If the water transfer request was approved in a timely manner, they could have provided more water to the fire department. However, this statement has been questioned by the media.
![Behind the Water Shortage in Maui Island, Hawaii, USA: A Battle for Water Rights: West Maui Land Company | Company | Water Rights](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/9dbc87b57c2eb4a3834cb018990b507a.jpg)
Water rights expert Jonathan Lick Schoiler: The system that draws water from the river is not connected to the county's water supply system at all. So even if approved by the water resources management department, the water retrieved cannot be used in La Haina.
The New York Times, a local media outlet in Hawaii, reported that most of the freshwater resources on Maui Island come from rivers and streams. As Maui Island becomes a resort, scenic resorts, swimming pools, and golf courses abound, exacerbating the tension in the water supply system. The game between real estate companies, large farms, tourism facilities, and residents on how to allocate water resources is becoming increasingly intense and highly politicized.
![Behind the Water Shortage in Maui Island, Hawaii, USA: A Battle for Water Rights: West Maui Land Company | Company | Water Rights](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/88b77b02d2b235d70bc78a18df4b952a.jpg)
Hawaii Governor Green: The water conflict on Maui Island has been significant for many years. Many people have been opposed to accessing more water resources for firefighting.
According to The Guardian, according to the law, indigenous Hawaiians originally had priority access to water; However, nowadays, many Hawaiian indigenous people who have lived on Maui Island since their ancestors still cannot obtain basic water rights. After a long struggle, the Hawaiian Water Resources Management Department finally decided in June 2022 to designate the western part of Maui Island as a surface and groundwater management area to avoid the historic and sustained overexploitation of water by plantations and developers. However, cruelly enough, just the day after the indigenous people filled out the water permit application form and the deadline for submitting the permit application, a raging fire engulfed La Haina, directly interrupting the implementation of this policy.
![Behind the Water Shortage in Maui Island, Hawaii, USA: A Battle for Water Rights: West Maui Land Company | Company | Water Rights](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/3e942a1ec8d4b9111de336e6aae28f10.jpg)
After the La Haina fire, the West Maui Land Company requested the state government of Hawaii to suspend water resource management in the western region of Maui, where La Haina is located. Some people have expressed support for using water as a fire reserve, but are concerned that water companies and large landowners may use fire prevention as an excuse to hoard stagnant water resources for commercial purposes. Water rights experts say that the current state government of Hawaii intends to take advantage of the wildfire to transform Hawaii, depriving Indigenous peoples and the public of the most basic protection for land and water resource development.