East Maui including Haiku and everything that EMWA covers
On Friday, September 5th, the Hawai’i Supreme Court found in favor of the Sierra Club who appealed a 2021 BLNR denial for a Contested Case Hearing on the issuance of a Revocable Permit to EMI, A&B, and Mahi Pono. Here is the press release from the Sierra Club on this…
Press-Release-East-Maui-Supreme-Court-090525-FINALMeetings in Keʻanae, Haʻikū, and Kula provided an opportunity for in-depth community conversations with residents of the Nāhiku, Keʻanae, Honomanū, and Huelo State of Hawaii License Areas, as well as Upcountry residents and farmers who are allocated 5.75 million gallons of day for agricultural and residential use.
The next series of meetings focused on Project Prioritization and Funding will take place on October 28 and 29, 2025. View Event Details
Day 1 began in Keʻanae with a tour from Keʻanae to Nāhiku in order to ensure that participants understood the hydrology and mechanics of the East Maui Irrigation system and to ground them in the history of its impacts. Attendees of the tour included residents of the lease areas, as well as stakeholders from throughout the island and journalists (Read the news stories from Overstory Hawaii & Maui Now).
The meetings included an update from East Maui Water Authority Director Gina Young, Group Break-Out Sessions and Reporting Out, and Expert Presentations from the Public Finance Initiative. Discussion questions for each break-out session were tailored to the unique history, geography, and needs of each area.
While the Keʻanae, Haʻikū, and Kula communities have unique priorities and perspectives, all 3 communities shared core concerns about community empowerment, infrastructure, equity, education, ecosystem health, and a call for transparency/accountability.
And the unique characteristics of each community were also clear:
Keʻanae’s concerns center on generational stewardship amid a commitment to encouraging a return of younger generations and cultural continuity — in response to the outmigration that resulted from plantation-era water diversion. There is a push for workforce development and solutions to reconnect youth with kupuna to address these concerns, as well as policy reforms that redress historic inequities.
Haʻikū-Huelo’s dialogue reflects a diverse population where both Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian residents share a commitment to cultural and environmental stewardship. The pain of land and water privatization is felt collectively, and even young people—regardless of heritage—voice grief about changes such as drying streams and diminished opportunities for traditional activities, strengthening joint calls for indigenous rights and careful scrutiny of outside actors in water governance.
Kula’s meeting spotlighted deep frustration over long water meter waitlists and fragmented infrastructure, which has resulted in water waste, as well as concerns that new water sources and upgrades are often prioritized for projects outside Upcountry Maui. This sense of inequity is compounded by skepticism toward proposed rate increases, and strong dissatisfaction over the absence of a comprehensive plan and perceived government inaction on Upcountry priorities.
Following the community discussions, four experts from the Public Finance Initiative gave presentations describing how to finance the community’s vision, presenting examples of indigenous governance of land and water projects on the continent, providing guidelines for ensuring decisions align with community values, and detailing a case study of a water utility’s approach to address environmental, sustainability, and indigenous issues.
“Funding Your Aspirations: A Public Finance Primer” by Lourdes German
Presentation Slides: Full PFI Team Presentation Slides (Kula meeting version) – View/Download
As part of this conversation series, we sent out surveys to the Haʻikū and Kula Communities. Survey results as of September 2025 are available to review below, feel free to respond to the survey if you haven’t already.
