Friends of Kona, by now you’ve noticed that we have a water shortage. Your government has caused the problem and is asking you to cut back on your water usage by 25 percent in order to correct their error.
I’ll bet you thought we were having a water shortage because of a lack of rain. Right? Well, the problem is not that. The problem is that four of their 13 wells which service our area (to pump water from the aquifer beneath this island) have failed and the Department of Water has failed to fix them for us.
The mayor of Hawaii island even said, “Any future failures of additional pumps will cause us to go to another level, meaning for some people, water will have to be rotated.” And, according to WHT on June 20, “A hiccup in power supply taking even one well offline for as little as a few hours could cause a dramatic drop in tank levels and prove the impetus for drastic changes in water availability.”
The Department of Water Supply tells us, “All it takes is a glitch in power or some other sort-term effect that might discontinue the ability of our existing wells to continue pumping.”
And that glitch happened as a Friday article pointed out. Five wells are now out.
The problem they are asking us to fix is created by those in charge of the water here on the island. Their pumps cost between $300,000-$800,000 depending on the well and specific repairs. They didn’t all fail at once, but because of the time duration for these repair jobs, five happen to be down at one time. Their future strategy includes bidding out repair jobs before they’re actually necessary. Having spare parts like this on hand is a costly endeavor.
Friends, the problem is caused by the system they installed on this island. The system should be changed. Here’s how:
East Hawaii has a lot of rain (127 inches annually) compared to the minimal amount we get on the west side (18 inches). Much of this east side water is excess to the east side. Our government can simply tap some of that water and bring it over here. I’m proposing two methods the County of Hawaii can choose from to do this.
The first method is to build a system of reservoirs on the east side which catch the rain. It can then be pumped past the military Pohakuloa Training Area and along Saddle Road to a reservoir on the west side where we can use it.
A second method would be to build a canal several thousand feet up the side of Mauna Kea to catch some of the water which exists in rivers and streams which flow to the ocean. I like this method best. We could catch excess rain which would fill the canal. The canal would then flow downhill slowly north above Waimea then continue west past the Waikoloa hotels and end in an existing systems of reservoirs above Kona. At any time along the water’s journey to the west side it could be tapped as necessary for agriculture, golf courses, tourist development (hotels) and even a tourist ride in the canal. This water that has been tapped can be bought to help pay for the system.
We need to tell our island’s Department of Water and to the County Council that they need to fix our water system permanently. Your part in this is to contact your representative and tell them that we need a system which is reliable and doesn’t blame us for the failures of the present system.
The bottom line is that the system we have now which consists of expensive pumps prone to failure and which use immense amounts of money to operate and repair is not adequate for us now or for our island’s future. Our future depends upon adequate water supplies. We must build a system which accesses the excess water of the east side and bring it to the west side.
Barry Willis is a resident of Kailua-Kona
