One Man's Drainage is Another Man's Sustenance

Not Venice: no gondolas or o sole mio's

On the mauka (mountain-facing) side of Kapiolani Boulevard are canals that disappear beneath the streets and the high-rise condos.

The water enters the underground storm drainage system that empties into the Ala Wai Canal, without which none of this concrete-in-paradise wonderland would exist.

The ancient Hawaiians also built a complex drainage system, not to dump water as efficiently as possible into the ocean but to service agricultural needs.

Once upon a time, the entirety of Hawaii’s coastal plains was covered in terraced plots of taro, a staple of the Hawaiian diet and a sacred plant throughout Polynesian culture.

Auwai crisscrossed the landscape. Water flowed from one patch to the next before returning, filtered, to the fish and salt ponds below.

We can appreciate, even extol, the benefits of progress while mourning what has been lost.