Water Sustainability on a Global Scale

Water is the most abundant resource on the planet, yet less than one percent of the Earth’s freshwater supply is readily available to drink, according to the World Health Organization. The world’s population is quickly approaching 7 billion, making access to clean water that much more important. According to the World Health Organization and UNICEF, more than 3.5 million people die every year from water-related diseases and almost 900 million don’t have access to a safe water supply.

Water quality around the world is at risk due to human/industrial contamination and ill-conceived and biased political policies. Water quality  is also at risk due to broad scale, severe climate events such as droughts, floods and storms. Contamination by animal contact - domesticated, feral  and wild - is yet another high risk cause of poor water quality.

See information about the Water for  Life Decade, 2005-2015, sponsored by the UN.

Water Sustainability Issues in Hawaii

Water issues are not just happening ’somehwere else’. In Hawaii the finite boundaries of each island requires geographically defined water self-sufficiency systems that are reliable, safe, and expandable. On each island there are dozens of micro-climates and varied geologic features that impact the availability,methods, and costs to access safe water.

Availability and Accessibility Issues in West Hawaii

The eastside of the Big Island has both surface water and underground reservoirs while the westside has no surface water in populated  areas and relies solely on wells that tap into natural underground reservoirs called acquifers. It is unknown what  the volume of water in these below-surface aquifers in West Hawaii actually is. And even on the wetter eastside of the island, there are periods with no water as rain does not fall evenly through out the year. Harvest water! It is an invaluable resource.

Learn about Hawaii Rain Water catchment ideas from University of  Hawaii here and order their helpful  manual here.

Information on our well systems is being developed by Soil and Water Conservation Districts (KSWCD serves West Hawaii) around the island and USGS provides some information on wells. Department of Land and Natural Resources also provides resources on construction of wells. 

In some areas on the west coast of the island, salty sea water is contaminating the fresh water acquifers due to human over-consumption of the fresh water which then allows sea water to  infiltrate the on-land watertable and thereby contaminate what, until recently, were reliable fresh water sources. If over-use cannot be compensated for by renewed rainwater at higher elevations (due to climate or deforestation impacts), it is possible these wells in residential areas will no longer be able to deliver potable water suitable f or human consumption.

Other Threats to  Water Quality

In addition to accessibility and availability issues, the Big Island also faces water threats from earthquake damage, development runoff, and animal contamination - as well as increasingly costly water pumping practices -  that impact residential and  rural farm settings alike.  In addition, human behaviors on land are impacting water quality at sea and directly impacting the sustainability of local fish and sealife populations.

A look at  these water challenges includes:

 * Agricultural ditches in areas with surface water have  been severely damaged by the island’s volatile earthquakes, disrupting water access in areas that have no county suppliedwater system

* Rapid development of residential, recreational, and commercial complexes has been documented as causing significant runoff pollution from soil, chemical and debris along the shorelines and in the w aterways.

* Animal fece contamination - bird or rat, cattle or feral horse - is a serious health threat as it can lead to the deadly Leptospirosis bacteria in water tanks, streams or wells

* For those served by county water, the electric energy cost of pumping water from the underground reservoirs is becoming the highest  cost in many residential water bills.

* Impacts of human use of near-shore lands may include contamination from things as invisible as household cleaning and washing practices to the more obvious negative impacts of introducing poisonous pesticide and herbicide chemicals through local agricultural and ladnscaping practices (that may be at much higher elevations but still will  make their way to the sea). If we are  to maintain a safe (and edible) sealife population, we will need to develop practices that recognize the inter-relation of the mountain-to-sea connection as a watershed system.