Mo’olelo

Prior to Liquid Features I’ve always seen this body of water as a tourist attraction. I did not understand the beauty and interest it had because all I saw was murky water. I would often fear people swimming in the water because the water looked shallow but also endless. It was not until this project where I saw the Ala Wai Canal as its own entity and story. It was not a lifeless flowing lake, but a body of water in dire condition in need of help. 

Being this water body made me realize how much it had endured. From being once a clear blue water body, it is now brown and deeply contaminated. Although it was made to help, it now has enough deadly bacteria to have put lives in danger. Regardless, it has “survived” over the years by government officials digging a deeper channel or sometimes even dumping more sewage into it. It can only thrive if the government considered patching it up with other wet lands or creating soft-shored canals in the streets of Waikiki. Overall, the canal needs sanitization through an outlet or a filtering system. 

Hydrography: 

Site Name: Ala Wai Canal at Honolulu, HI  

Site Type: Canal

Start Point: Manoa and Palolo Streams (tributary)

End Point: Ala Wai Harbor, Pacific Ocean

DMS Latitude: 211700.66

DMS Longitude: 1574938.12

Drainage Area: 11.9

Inorganic, Minor, or Metals Detected: 

Sulfate, Aluminum, Barium, Beryllium, Cadmium, Chromium, Cobalt, Copper, Iron, Lead, Manganese, Mercury, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silver… Read more here at https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/211712157494801/?agency_cd=USGS#period=P1Y 

Although the Ala Wai Canal is located in Waikiki and known to be the center of paradise, the body of water still endures some bad weather. Although temperatures around it are normally 68°F to 87°F, it still experiences damage during heavy rain. During the rainy season, the canal is feared to overflow and can potentially flood the streets of Waikiki.

Sadly, this water body interacts with pollution the most. On March 24, 2006 about 48 million gallons of raw sewage was dumped into the canal. When the Beachwalk Wastewater Pump Station overflowed, its sewage eventually fell into the canal. With it being an estuary, it often receives stormwater from 4,099-acre of land. As a result, the water becomes polluted and becomes more tainted every year. 

Unfortunately, the canal also interacts with humans in a negative way. As much as it was supposed to protect and provide for mankind, man-made pollution has made it a vile canal. After pollution was detected, signs were often put up to prevent public access. However, people still tried to interact with the water body. The interaction only leads to deaths or trips to the ER. 

In 2006, Oliver Johnson died by falling into the polluted waters of the Ala Wai Canal. When he fell in he contracted multiple bacterial infections from the lake. This eventually led to organ failure resulting in his death. 

The cultural importance of this water body was that it turned Waikiki from a Native Hawaiian self-sustaining nourished land into a tourist attraction full of urbanization. The water body destroyed the native culture in Waikiki. 

Prior to Waikiki being known for tourism, it was once a body of water that nourished many Native Hawaiians. It had water falling from all aspects of nature such as mountains and the ocean. The water of Waikiki provided lush vegetation for taro plantations and man-made ponds. Ponds was filled with healthy fish and edible seaweed. Asian immigrants even farmed in Waikiki such as creating rice paddies. 

In the 1920s, the water of Waikiki was being drained for the man-made canal known as the Ala Wai Canal. After the drainage the wetlands around Waikiki were blocked to build hotels and high rise. Although it was built to “sanitize” the potential disease from the previous wetlands, it only drained the wetlands home to millions of wildlife and lo’i. As years passed, pollution began to taint the canal, and Waikiki was known to have deadly man-made polluted water that ran for 2 miles long. 

When the water body was first being built, it was proposed by Walter Dillingham to have two outlets built to filter the waste water. However, only one outlet was built. The second eastern outlet, also known as Kapiolani Park and Kaimana Beach, was deserted instead. This resulted in the canal having a limited amount of space to drain pollution. 

Dillingham’s Hawaiian Dredging Co. would eventually use a dredging machine called the "Kewalo" to create the appropriate depth for the canal. The 50-foot-tall Kewalo was too tall to fit in the 60-foot wide canal. Engineers would have to widen the canal to 150 feet instead. Due to a material shortage to fill up the other wetlands, the canal was finally widened to 250 feet and 25 feet deep.

The deepness of the canal would sometimes cause people to sink. In 1935, two kids went out too far in the canal and started to sink and drown. Even when people tried to save them, they would get trapped in 20-inch mud beneath the canal. Around the 1940s, the canal was known as a community. People would fish and gather around it. But the one outlet that was never built created the downfall of the canal. 

As Waikiki urbanized, more pollution poured into the canal. By having only one outlet, it could only filter out so much trash. Eventually, the water became heavily polluted, and people began to fear the dangers of it overflowing. The canal became a ticking time bomb for Waikiki and the rest of the island. 

Sources --> https://sites.google.com/d/1Fsm56Le_bQKZgR4TWv68yWk4w9grreFd/p/1XP3g1FnsHoyvTT1sNg-xdLF-94goPDpr/edit