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The struggle to perpetuate Hawaiian culture
June 13, 2008 | 07:57 PM

I've been watching taro farmers fighting for water my whole life. It's so hard to see the Wailuanui taro farmers fight legally for seven years only to get the run around from the Commission for Water Resource Management. It's obvious that A&B/HC&S/EMI are violating their lease. There is just as real an injury to the downstream land owners as there would be to HC&S if they were not getting sufficient water. This situation needs to be made pono, not allowed to continue and drag heels. 180 days has come and gone. The US is governed by a system of laws and it is clear that Native Hawaiians water rights are being trampled by lack of law enforcement on their behalf.
This is a small island and we need to do what is right for everyone not just a small percentage of the population. Yes, EMI employs 800 workers in sugar, but should their employment take precedence over the host culture's way of life? Restored streamflow would not only benefit small farmers, it would revitalize entire ecosystems, restore estuaries and nearshore marine life. In Hawaii, the environment is the economy so it is in all of our best interests to malama 'aina. Maybe instead of water thirsty sugarcane, HC&S could look into less thirsty clumping bamboo and grab a piece of the $500 million in US imports not to mention the ecological benefits and possibility of truly affordable bamboo homes. If Vietnam a third world country could do it, surely Hawaii can also.

Tamara Paltin