In the morning hours of Saturday, May 23rd, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit Honaunau-Napoopoo on the Big Island in Hawaii. It is the largest earthquake Hawaii has experience in four years, since the 6.2 magnitude quake in October of 2021 just south of shore on the Big Island, about 30 miles from where the most recent struck. Thankfully there have been no confirmed fatalities resulting from the natural disaster, but there has been extensive property damage, including to the water collection tanks many Kona coffee farms rely on to feed their crops.
As reported by the New York Times, many in the rural farming communities around the Big Island don’t have a county water supply. Instead they rely on rainwater not only to feed their crops but to fill their water tanks, which they use in their homes and in the fields. According to a 2017 University of Hawaii study, up to 60,000 individuals use water catchment systems to supplement access to county water or as their sole source of water, and a majority of them live in Kona.
These catchers can hold in the neighborhood of 10,000 gallons of water, all of which is lost when they are damaged. Per the NYT, the exact number of damaged catchment systems is not yet known, but one of the two main sellers on Kona states they have already received over 200 calls from folks looking to acquire new ones. The company is having to bring over additional staff from Oahu to help meet the demand.
Coffee growers on Kona have already experienced significant setbacks this year from spring storms known as “Kona lows,” powerful spring storms that resulted in extensive damage from flooding and required evacuations and emergency rescues. Coffee farmers are still in the process of recovering from the damage, and now their primary water supply has dropped to zero.
Local authorities have dispatched 2,000-gallon water tankers to Kona to aid in meeting residents’ immediate needs. But the longterm future of the farms remains in question.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
