Haʻikū Community Water Resource Planning

Haʻikū and Huelo Community Meeting and Listening Session

Co-hosted by the Haʻikū Community Association
part of the East Maui Water Authority Community Conversation Series June 16-18

Fill out the Haʻikū Community Water Survey

We kindly ask you to take a short survey to better understand our community’s views related to our watershed.

Wednesday June 18, 2025 | 6:30 to 8:30pm
Haʻikū Community Center, Hana Highway at Pilialoha St

Description:

The mission of the East Maui Water Authority is to oversee water systems within the Nāhiku, Ke’aeae, Honomanũ, and Huelo license areas, where many Haiku and Huelo residents reside.  It is essential that these communities play a role in the management and use of these water resources to ensure that our community benefits and issues such as long-term water availability, food security, climate resilience are addressed.  This is the first time a community led and culturally based watershed plan will be developed for the Huelo area. Residents now have an opportunity to share their knowledge and priorities.

The Public Finance Initiative and East Maui Water Authority will engage Haiku and Huelo residents, farmers, policymakers and anyone concerned about the watershed and Huelo surface water in a deep diving discussion about water resource management and how it can support Haiku and Huelo residents.

The meeting will include:

• PFI and the East Maui Water Authority will engage attendees in deep diving discussions about the current state of the East Maui watershed and local watershed communities, surfacing perspectives on the strengths and challenges that can be addressed through the management of this vital asset in Maui’s cultural and natural ecosystem.
• Experts and staff of the Public Finance Initiative will then present a moderated panel that will  broaden the community’s understanding of water and watershed issues on a larger global scale and discuss how other communities  are addressing issues and priorities that are similar to the challenges facing the East Maui Watershed (i.e. practices from indigenous groups handling water and land management issues informed by their cultural values and practices derived from ancestral knowledge; England’s experience with the public trust doctrine, ways to translate community vision into actionable strategies, and ways to fund the desired future of the watershed guided by principles of equity, access, and community).

Goals:

The East Maui Water Authority is working to reframe the discussion around water resource planning to bring a community-based perspective focused on meeting the needs of the watershed community. The goal of the meeting is to better understand community sentiments and harness them into actionable efforts to support local management of local resources.  Information from the meetings will be used to guide the EMWAʻs efforts in working with the state and private interests and form the basis of the first ever community-based, culturally rooted watershed management plan for the East Maui water collection area.