The recent storms highlight the need to fix old and damaged water systems in Hawaiʻi.
Hurricane Nolo didn’t hit the Kaʻū District on Hawaiʻi Island nearly as hard as previous storms this year, but Hawaiʻi County Councilmember Michelle Galimba said the minor flooding in the southern portion of the island resulted from damage to by water and drainage infrastructure from previous storms.
“This time, luckily, there wasn't as much flooding. Most of the flooding really is a result of the damage that the Kona low and Hurricane Lala did to our drainage system that we just haven't been able to fix,” Galimba said. “And honestly, I don't know that at this point we really know how to fix it. We just haven't had time to get to fixing these drainage systems, which is a big problem.”
Galimba also said that the amount of water the area is receiving has increased because of climate change, and the drainage infrastructure isn’t designed to handle that much water.
The County of Hawaiʻi Department of Water Supply said that Hurricane Lala broke pipes and other infrastructure in the Kaʻū district.
Keith Okamoto is the manager-chief engineer of the county’s DWS. According to the minutes of the Aug. 25 water board meeting, he said, “We could visibly see that a couple of washed-out areas … wiped out our waterline. Other places we saw waterlines exposed; we don’t know if it was damaged and leaking, but some places had obvious water pipes washed down.”
Okamoto said there was “a lot of damage” to other pipes and water infrastructure in the area.
Recent storms also damaged systems in other parts of the state, including Kauaʻi during Hurricane Lowell.
Much of the water infrastructure in the state is aging and in poor condition. A 2019 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers graded Hawaiʻi’s infrastructure for dams, drinking water, stormwater and wastewater a “D+” or worse, which it defines as in “poor to fair condition and mostly below standard, with many elements approaching the end of their service life.”
