Streams of Controversy

In the Ka Wai Ola's Stream's of Controversy, Liza Simons presents a water rights conflict between sugar plantation companies and native Hawaiians. A ditch system is diverting water from the Na Wai 'Eha streams unfairly, and drying out the Hawaiians lo'i.

"When Hawaiians lost their waterways to plantation ditches, it was a detrimental to the native culture as loss of land."

The the main point in the Hawaiian argument is that the streams are necessary to their lifestyle. The streams running low has affected taro cultivation, and without food they can't feed their families and are forced to move away. Many Hawaiian families have also found it hard to practice wetland kalo cultivation because of the low amount of water available to them.

A proposal was made to restore 34.5 million gallons of water to the Na Wai 'Eha streams, however sugarcane companies complain that reflowing the streams will affect their company profits. Are they only worried about profits? No. More importantly they make a good point in saying that if their ditch systems don't stay in business many Hawaiians will lose their jobs.

"We're not saying we can live off of kalo and nothing else, because we can't, but we also know that sugar has never sustained our community. No job -no matter how important it seems, should come at the cost of a resource that is essential."

This quote by a kalo farmer helped me make my final decision in where i stand in this argument. I think the waters should be restored to the native Hawaiians. They understand that there are jobs at risk, but they also know that sugar isn't essential to a community, while the rivers ARE important to their culture.