My thoughts on traveling to this water tunnel is seeing water flowing through rocks. I am thinking that we will have to walk in a tunnel that is dark, scary and long. I think that when we reach the end of the tunnel we will find an abundance of water flowing out of the rocks. I have never been to a water tunnel in my life or heard of one so i am really unknowledgeable about this and i dont really know what to expect.
The waiheʻe water tunnel is dug deep into what is called the “Dike Zone”. This is where water filters through lava rocks which our islands are completely made up of. This water tunnel produces so much water that it supplies almost 40% of the water that people from Kailua to Kahaluʻu use. The board of water supply yileds around 5 million gallons of water from this tunnel almost everyday.
In hawaii, we have the perfect conditions to make rain. Hawaii has trade winds that blow clouds to our islands bringing rain. Rain is mostly produced in elevations of 2,000-3,000 feet which is generally the hieght of the waianae and koʻolau mountains. When the clouds reach the mountain the want to go past the mountain but the clouds are too heavy so they release weight by raining and eventually they are light enough to go above the mountain. The board of water supply knows this so they built this tunnel at the elevation between 2,000-3,000 feet.
My first step into the tunnel, and my shoes were immediately filled with water. When kumu said there was about an inch or two of water i didnt think it was that much. The tunnel was very dark and i noticed that there was some light system set up on the wall that does not work. When we were walking, you could hear every noise from the water flowing, to the flashlights, and people talking. We occasionally stopped when we passed something interesting and i liked when Uncle showed us how the pipes were built in 1954 and told us that these were still the originall pipes that were built. When we reach the spilt between the different bulkheads of the tunnel, one side sounded like you left the shower on, and the other side you couldnt hear anything. We went inside the dry side first and there was some water coming out of the rocks but not alot. There was also a door that supposedly is used to help build up and store water. When we went into the wet side, it was a whole different feel, the water was freezing cold and coming out in a big quantity. Our class immediately took of our shirts and went under the water. As the water touched my skin, it felt like nothing but pure coldness and mana. This water was untouched by man and straight from the land. I am so happy that we had a camera to capture this wonderful moment. Underneath the water, i felt connected to this wai although i am not from waiheʻe. I felt connected because this water came from the land that i was born in and the land my ancestors used to live on. This connected me to my ancestors because they didnt have a tap water system. My ancestors drank water that was untouched by pipes or man like this same water coming out of the rocks. I connected to the wai because this wai is important for our aina. With the amount of water we are currently using, we will run out so if we want to have water in the future, we need to make sure things like this water tunnel is alays working and supplying water for people to use and drink.
I am from Nanakuli on the westside where we are not lucky enough to have a stream of fresh water that we could use. There is a stream in nanakuli but is in known as "stink ponds" there is a lot of trash the is inside of the pond and I think that one day it was probably fresh and drinkable water because flows down from the valley but overtime, it was polluted and the water is no longer drinkable. there was also another flowing water in nanakuli that would mostly only flow during rainy times but this was eventually channelized with concrete to build more houses. Not having fresh water wai in my ahupuaʻa makes it hard for me to connect to wai because my wai comes from a faucet when I turn the tap water on. board of water supply, supplies my family with the water that we use in daily activities like washing clothes and they provide our drinking water. if I had a fresh water wai in my ahupuaʻa, I would go through whatever it took to preserve is and keep it fresh. seeing the stink ponds everyday when I enter nanakuli sickens my stomach because if that was fresh water, the people from nanakuli could use it for so much things like farming because without fresh water, its hard to farm plants.
Water was very important to the Hawaiians and to the Hawaiian people. "He huewai ola ke kanaka na Kāne". this is an oleo noeau that means water is life and man is the keeper of it. The Hawaiians knew that water was so important that without water they wouldn't be able to land. none of their plants would grow without water and they would have nothing to eat leaving them with no hope of survival. our ancestors understood how important water was and this is why they always took care of the water and treated water with care.
Some takeaways that I have from learning about water is that water is the key to survival. I also was able to take water less for granted because before learning about water, I wouldn't even think about how lucky I was that my house was hooked up to the pipes and I was able to receive tap water. If I was not hooked up to the tap water, this would make my life a lot harder. I was also able to takeaway how important the Hawaiians treated water. They took great care of their water because if they were to ruin or pollute it, then they would be in a lot of trouble.
The waiheʻe water tunnel is dug deep into what is called the “Dike Zone”. This is where water filters through lava rocks which our islands are completely made up of. This water tunnel produces so much water that it supplies almost 40% of the water that people from Kailua to Kahaluʻu use. The board of water supply yileds around 5 million gallons of water from this tunnel almost everyday.
In hawaii, we have the perfect conditions to make rain. Hawaii has trade winds that blow clouds to our islands bringing rain. Rain is mostly produced in elevations of 2,000-3,000 feet which is generally the hieght of the waianae and koʻolau mountains. When the clouds reach the mountain the want to go past the mountain but the clouds are too heavy so they release weight by raining and eventually they are light enough to go above the mountain. The board of water supply knows this so they built this tunnel at the elevation between 2,000-3,000 feet.
My first step into the tunnel, and my shoes were immediately filled with water. When kumu said there was about an inch or two of water i didnt think it was that much. The tunnel was very dark and i noticed that there was some light system set up on the wall that does not work. When we were walking, you could hear every noise from the water flowing, to the flashlights, and people talking. We occasionally stopped when we passed something interesting and i liked when Uncle showed us how the pipes were built in 1954 and told us that these were still the originall pipes that were built. When we reach the spilt between the different bulkheads of the tunnel, one side sounded like you left the shower on, and the other side you couldnt hear anything. We went inside the dry side first and there was some water coming out of the rocks but not alot. There was also a door that supposedly is used to help build up and store water. When we went into the wet side, it was a whole different feel, the water was freezing cold and coming out in a big quantity. Our class immediately took of our shirts and went under the water. As the water touched my skin, it felt like nothing but pure coldness and mana. This water was untouched by man and straight from the land. I am so happy that we had a camera to capture this wonderful moment. Underneath the water, i felt connected to this wai although i am not from waiheʻe. I felt connected because this water came from the land that i was born in and the land my ancestors used to live on. This connected me to my ancestors because they didnt have a tap water system. My ancestors drank water that was untouched by pipes or man like this same water coming out of the rocks. I connected to the wai because this wai is important for our aina. With the amount of water we are currently using, we will run out so if we want to have water in the future, we need to make sure things like this water tunnel is alays working and supplying water for people to use and drink.
I am from Nanakuli on the westside where we are not lucky enough to have a stream of fresh water that we could use. There is a stream in nanakuli but is in known as "stink ponds" there is a lot of trash the is inside of the pond and I think that one day it was probably fresh and drinkable water because flows down from the valley but overtime, it was polluted and the water is no longer drinkable. there was also another flowing water in nanakuli that would mostly only flow during rainy times but this was eventually channelized with concrete to build more houses. Not having fresh water wai in my ahupuaʻa makes it hard for me to connect to wai because my wai comes from a faucet when I turn the tap water on. board of water supply, supplies my family with the water that we use in daily activities like washing clothes and they provide our drinking water. if I had a fresh water wai in my ahupuaʻa, I would go through whatever it took to preserve is and keep it fresh. seeing the stink ponds everyday when I enter nanakuli sickens my stomach because if that was fresh water, the people from nanakuli could use it for so much things like farming because without fresh water, its hard to farm plants.
Water was very important to the Hawaiians and to the Hawaiian people. "He huewai ola ke kanaka na Kāne". this is an oleo noeau that means water is life and man is the keeper of it. The Hawaiians knew that water was so important that without water they wouldn't be able to land. none of their plants would grow without water and they would have nothing to eat leaving them with no hope of survival. our ancestors understood how important water was and this is why they always took care of the water and treated water with care.
Some takeaways that I have from learning about water is that water is the key to survival. I also was able to take water less for granted because before learning about water, I wouldn't even think about how lucky I was that my house was hooked up to the pipes and I was able to receive tap water. If I was not hooked up to the tap water, this would make my life a lot harder. I was also able to takeaway how important the Hawaiians treated water. They took great care of their water because if they were to ruin or pollute it, then they would be in a lot of trouble.