Wai in Waikīkī: Past, Present & Future Paths Forward for the Ala Wai Watershed
This piece is authored by Emily Nālani Medeiros and Sarah Michal Hamid for Dr. Mehana Vaughn, Kumu Malia Akutagawa JD, ESQ., & Kumu Matt Lynch’s SUST 456/HWST 458 Natural Resources Issues & Ethics final project. We are grateful to all of our Kumu for supporting us throughout this very unique semester, and most importantly for reminding us that there is a sustainable, Hawaiian, and community centered path forward in Hawaiʻi — and we have to help pave the way.
“Hoʻokahe wai hoʻoulu ʻāina”, when the water flows the land thrives. Water is life, in every single way, and any attempt to sever the flow of water is an attempt to sever the flow of life. Waikīkī is the spouting of water¹, life, and abundance. Now it is home to the economic epicenter of Hawaiʻi², and is one of the “most heavily fertilized estuaries in the world”³. Waikīkī may even be swallowed by the sea within the next 20 years⁴, but even with these drastic yet realistic estimates, the most substantive transformation to Waikīkī happened 100 years ago. In 1921 the flow of water in the ahupuaʻa of Waikīkī on the island of Oʻahu was severed by the Ala Wai Canal. Deemed “Hawaiʻi’s biggest mistake,”⁵ the canal is a site of great injustice, both in its memory and its absence. After multiple extreme flash flood events⁶ in the watershed, it was determined that intervention was necessary. Using the canal to sever Waikīkī’s flow has consequently eradicated ahupuaʻa’s food production, and has created a multitude of other environmental problems, including potential flooding, which will be focused on in this research. However, before being able to properly address its modern issues, it is important to establish a foundation of how Waikīkī’s water resources were traditionally managed under Hawaiian stewardship. The history of foreign development and tourism in Waikīkī cannot be separated from the contemporary ecological hazards, and it is impossible to understand the onset of the current environmental issues and make proper management decisions for ʻāina without truly understanding its rich environmental and cultural past.“In a matter of eight years, the work of countless anonymous Hawaiians, work that had survived for centuries, was undone,”⁷ and this work seeks to correct the narrative of Waikīkī, and present a path forward.
The Waikīkī ahupuaʻa extends from Kewalo to Kuliʻouʻou, but the threatened area and the focus of this research is on the Ala Wai watershed, which consists of Makiki, Mānoa, and Pālolo. Originally a wetland, Waikīkī had numerous fresh water springs and fishponds, and was able to feed a large, thriving community. However, the conversion of Waikīkī into a tourist “paradise” via the creation of the Ala Wai Canal to drain wetlands has created ongoing environmental issues, making the area susceptible to major erosion, an area of concern for rising sea levels, and an area with looming threats of projects that would damage the watershed further, namely the Ala Wai Canal Project, which ultimately proposes to once again alter the flow of natural stream water in Pālolo, Mānoa, and Makiki valleys in order to prevent the canal from overflowing into coastal Waikīkī.
The source of Waikīkī’s abundant fresh water starts in the uplands and makes its way down to the coast. Located in the back of Pālolo valley, at Kaʻau Crater, is a spring called Kaʻauhelemoa⁸. The two main streams of Pālolo valley are Waiʻōmaʻo, whose source starts at 2,000 feet elevation⁹, and Pūkele, whose source starts at 1,700 feet elevation. These streams converge at 250 feet elevation and become Pālolo stream¹⁰. Similarly, Mānoa’s uplands house seven streams, which then converge to become the Mānoa stream and finally joins with the Pālolo stream outside of the valley¹¹. Hawaiians traditionally utilized these water resources in a way that did not deplete them. Pālolo valley was packed and terraced with loʻi kalo from the ʻili of Wailupe and Pūkele, or the present-day Carlos Long area, all the way down to the sea. Similarly, Mānoa and Makiki valleys were heavily cultivated with loʻi kalo as well.
Waikīkī had three main streams that emptied into the ocean, creating estuaries that were vital for the survival of limu and serving as habitats for juvenile fish. These three streams are Kuekaunahi, sometimes called Kūkaunahi, which emptied near Kapiʻolani Park; ʻĀpuakēhau, which emptied at the present-day Outrigger Hotel; and Piʻinaio, which had several muliwai or stream outlets near the current Ala Moana Shopping Center. These streams were vital to ecosystem health, because estuarine areas where salt and freshwater converge promoted an abundance of diverse marine life. Waikīkī was famous for its abundance of limu līpoa¹², which was made possible by the key nutrients and brackish water provided by the estuaries. In turn, the abundance of limu attracted herbivorous fish and allowed them to thrive. Estuaries are also important spawning areas and they serve as a safe habitat for juvenile fish. The streams that emptied from Waikīkī were also surrounded by marshland, which is a natural feature that was necessary in order to keep the estuaries balanced and preventing excessive sediment and runoff from smothering the coral reefs. Marshes serve to improve water quality because the vegetation filters out excess sediment and runoff before entering the ocean¹³. The way Hawaiians constructed the fishponds and loʻi in accordance with Waikīkī’s natural water distribution allowed a natural marsh environment to be maintained, which promoted the health of the estuarine and marine ecosystems.
Before imposed colonial hydrology, the land that the canal currently covers was once thriving with loʻi kalo, freshwater fishponds, and eventually rice paddies as well. Though revisionist history will tell you otherwise, farmers of many different ethnic backgrounds lived and worked in Waikīkī together without considerable conflict¹⁴. Not only did this proper land and water usage allow people to be fed, but it also allowed native wildlife to flourish. The extensive loʻi kalo served as excellent habitats and food sources for native waterbirds¹⁵. Additionally, Waikīkī had at least fourteen freshwater fishponds that were still in use for food production by 1901, but prior to that there were several more¹⁶. The main species cultivated in the ponds include awa (milkfish), ʻamaʻama (mullet), and ʻoʻopu (goby). There were even some loʻi kalo that doubled as fishponds¹⁷.
The biggest mistake that has drastically altered Waikīkī’s water distribution and ecosystem was the construction of the Ala Wai Canal, but how exactly did the Ala Wai Canal come to fruition? Introduced in 1921¹⁸under the Territory of Hawaiʻi by Lucius Pinkham, the canal was constructed under the guise of “sanitary concerns” whose justification stemmed from racist assumptions conclusions about the sanitary health loʻi kalo system decided that the marsh lands of Waikīkī were a threat to public health. Pinkham also oversaw the process to approve sugar cane plantation projects, which would greatly benefit from a concrete watershed, as it diverted water from the disintegrating ahupuaʻa and instead allowed for an increase in commercial use of water. The Ala Wai Canal was built to increase the potential profitability in Waikīkī; to make money and promote tourism. The canal began construction in 1921, and the project was contracted to the Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company, owned by Walter Dillingham, a close associate of Pinkham¹⁹. Permits signed off by Pinkham mandated that the canal be constructed above sea level, and the company ended up selling the dredged material (spoil) back to the territory in order to comply with the permit²⁰. During the construction period, many families whose ancestral ties to this land run deeper than the canal ever will, were forced to sell their land or have “condemned” by the territorial government. This process was coined as the “Waikiki Reclamation Project” though it sought to dispossess people from land rather than reclaim it²¹. Canal construction necessitated draining the freshwater from Waikīkī and mandated approximately two miles of inland dredging to fill in the fishponds and wetlands, as well as the dredging of coral reefs to create beaches for tourists²². The construction of the canal and the draining of the wetlands was a vital step in making way for an urbanization process to build the tourist industry. At the time, and contemporarily, the tourist industry brings financial profit to a rich, foreign few.
This massive environmental transformation event was the moment Waikīkī changed from a place that fed Hawaiians, to a place that would eventually line the pockets of haole. By 1928, the marsh and estuaries had been completely replaced by cement retaining walls, sea walls, and dozens of private estates and hotels²³. Waikīkī could no longer nourish the people, because all the fishponds and loʻi were drained and filled in. Aside from completely stripping Waikīkī kamaʻāina from their ability to feed themselves, the construction of the Ala Wai Canal significantly damaged aquatic ecosystems. Native fish like ʻoʻopu cannot migrate upstream under the current concrete conditions²⁴, and have since become an endangered species, with many non Indigenous freshwater fish dominating²⁵ what is left of natural streams in the Ala Wai Watershed. While Waikīkī was naturally an estuary, is it now one of the most fertilized estuaries in the world, and this is not good²⁶. The high concentration of nutrients creates algal blooms in the canal²⁷, which in turn creates a hypoxic, or oxygen depleted toxic aquatic environment, which literally suffocates the existing fish and marine animals. Though the highly fertilized nature of the canal is a cause for concern, so is its imminent flood threat.
The following is an example of a frequent “flash flood” event that is directly related to urbanization and the Ala Wai Canal’s existence: in seasons of heavy rainfall, the Outrigger Hotel in Waikīkī experiences flash flooding in its parking garage²⁸. In reality, these “flood” waters are actually the ʻĀpuakēhau stream flowing exactly where it used to²⁹! The Ala Wai Canal was created to cut off this stream and others so that hotels could be built, but the reality is going against Waikīkī’s natural water distribution has always been and will always be a recipe for disaster. By contrast, Hawaiians worked with Waikīkī’s natural water distribution to create health and abundance for humans and animals, as was previously discussed. Flooding was not an issue in the ʻĀpuakēhau area, because the stream was surrounded by plenty of marsh vegetation, which allowed for the stream to empty to the ocean naturally and uninterrupted. Therefore, the only feasible way to prevent potential flooding in Waikīkī would be to physically restore streams and marshes as best possible to their former conditions.
Our reality now, is that Waikīkī may soon no longer exist as an idealized tourist paradise, because it may be underwater³⁰. Due to the poor engineering of the canal, it actually will likely accelerate a flood rather than prevent it. The Ala Wai Canal is composed mostly of concrete, which rapidly accelerates water flow during flood events³¹. In fact such flood events have occurred³², which is why the canal has faced so much attention in the past 20 years. The 2004 Halloween Flood that started in Mānoa Valley drastically changed the way resource managers and residents viewed the canal. Since the flood damage was mainly in the upper part of the Ala Wai watershed at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the UH Office of Emergency Management began the initial flood protection planning³³. However, due to the extensive nature of the flood protection planning, the authority was later given to the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
It should be noted that at the time, the USACE-Honolulu District Chief was supervising a cohort of Natural Resource & Environmental Management (NREM) students at UH Mānoa³⁴. In 2004, the Honolulu District Program was valued at $1.97 billion⁴⁵. With a bevy of financial support, and formal jurisdiction over the Ala Wai Canal flood resilience project, the Ala Wai Canal Project began. Interestingly, though the project entailed considerable future changes to the landscape, particularly as it relates to environmental management, community members and UH faculty were not invited to participate in the design process. In fact, over the almost 20 year that the project has been in existence, less than 100 public meetings have been held³⁶, signaling to the community that the project does not intend to center, protect, or involve community interests³⁷.
Waikīkī appears to be the romanticized settler paradise ideal, because it is marketed as a place of leisure and relaxation, not as a place of actual Hawaiian livelihood³⁸. This happens all while ʻoʻopu die, local families are forced to relocate, and colonial hydrology continues to remain the norm. The proposed United States Army Corps of Engineers Ala Wai Canal Project will not prevent flooding, and it wont even mitigate it. It does not recognize a world where ecosystem restoration is the necessary way forward³⁹. Community projects like the Ala Wai Centennial Project⁴⁰ demonstrate that there can be a path forward for the Ala Wai Watershed, and one that centers Hawaiian cultural resource management rather than urbanization and foreign profit. Rejecting western resource management and colonial hydrology is not simply an ideological ideal, it is a necessary reality. We hope that through the sharing of this knowledge, people will be empowered to engage in ahupuaʻa management that is led by Kanaka Maoli, not by colonial hydrology.
[1] Pukui, Mary Kawena, Elbert, Samuel H., and Mookini, Esther T. Place Names of Hawaii. Revised and Expanded ed. 1976. Print. Page 229.
[3] Card, B. J. (2011). Fate and transport of pollutants and their impacts on the Ala Wai Canal (Masters thesis). University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Retrieved from Scholarspace http://hdl.handle.net/10125/101561 . Page 5.
[4] https://www.businessinsider.com/hawaii-waikiki-beach-sea-level-rise-2019-4
[5]https://www.civilbeat.org/2013/05/ala-wai-canal-hawaiis-biggest-mistake
[6]https://www.weather.gov/hfo/ManoaFlood20041030
[7] Wood, H. (1999). Displacing Natives: The Rhetorical Production of Hawaiʻi. Page 101.
[8] Sterling and Summers, Sites of Oʻahu, 277.
[9]Mary Kawena Pukui, Samuel H. Elbert, and Esther T. Moʻokini, Place Names of Hawaiʻi (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1984).
[10]Ibid.
[11]Bishop, Waikīkī [map], 1888.
[12]Lurline Wailana McGregor, “Limu Traditions,” Ka Pili Kai, https://seagrant.soest.hawaii.edu/limu-traditions/.
[13]B. R. Hill, “Hawaiʻi Wetland Resources,” in U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 2425, (Washington, D.C.: US GPO, 1982), Page 167.
[14]Feeser, A., & Chan, G. (2006). Waikiki : a history of forgetting and remembering . University of Hawaiʻi Press.
[15]J. McAllister, Archaeology of Oʻahu (Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1933), Page 75.
[16]McAllister, 76.
[17]Ibid.
[18]Robert L. Wiegel, “Waikīkī Beach, Oʻahu Hawaiʻi: History of its Transformation from a Natural to Urban Shore,” Shore and Beach 76 (2008). Page 12.
[19]Weigel, Robert L. Wiegel, “Waikīkī Beach, Oʻahu Hawaiʻi: History of its Transformation from a Natural to Urban Shore,” Shore and Beach 76 (2008). Page 12.
[20] Feeser, A., & Chan, G. (2006). Waikiki : a history of forgetting and remembering . University of Hawaiʻi Press. Page 25.
[21]Goodyear-Kaʻōpua, N. (2009) Rebuilding the ‘Auwai: Connecting Ecology, Economy and Education in Hawaiian Schools. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 5(2) 46–77. Page 53.
[22]Ibid., 3, 12.
[23]Walter E. Wall. Waikīkī Beach [map]. 1928. Scale 1=100. “Registered Map №2800.” State of Hawaiʻi Department of Accounting and General Services.
[24]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yKq02tHrcc
[25]http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/pdf/tr-17.pdf
[26]Card, B. J. (2011). Fate and transport of pollutants and their impacts on the Ala Wai Canal (Masters thesis). University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Retrieved from Scholarspace http://hdl.handle.net/10125/101561 . Page 10.
[27]Venzon, Nel C. “Massive Discharge of Untreated Sewage into the Ala Wai Canal (Oahu, Hawaii): A Threat to Waikiki’s Waters?” Journal of Environmental Health, vol. 70, no. 5, 2007, pp. 25–31. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26327533.
[28]Feeser, A., & Chan, G. (2006). Waikiki : a history of forgetting and remembering . University of Hawaiʻi Press. Page 76.
[29]Ibid.
[30]https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/22/us/hawaii-waikiki-climate-change-trnd/index.html
[31]La Loggia, G., Puleo, V. & Freni, G. Floodability: A New Paradigm for Designing Urban Drainage and Achieving Sustainable Urban Growth. Water Resource Management 34, 3411–3424 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-020-02620-6
[32]http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Nov/01/ln/ln01p.html
[35]https://www.poh.usace.army.mil/Portals/10/docs/newsreleases/2004/NR20040716-00.pdf
[37]https://vimeo.com/332056641
[38]Wood, H. (1999). Displacing Natives: The Rhetorical Production of Hawaiʻi. Page 101.
[39]https://www.poh.usace.army.mil/Portals/10/docs/Ala%20Wai%20FRM/Ala%20Wai%20EDR%20Signed.pdf?ver=QaO0uUE_k-lrwzlMcPsl4w%3d%3d Page D-12
