Uncovering the Potential of Honolulu’s Hidden Streams – via Next City
The stream was an auwai (‘auwai in Hawaiian), an irrigation ditch dug by Native Hawaiians to divert water from Oahu’s many streams to lo’i, wetland taro patches. 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.
Today, there is little evidence of this complex irrigation network, especially in Honolulu, where, like in other American cities, even natural streams have been buried, channelized or diverted into manmade canals. The auwai that Howard Hughes discovered was likely buried in the 1920s, encapsulated in concrete and forgotten.
Aloha, I am an 8th grade teacher at Kamehameha Middle School-Kapālama. The students and I have been learning more about our ahupuaʻa and we are trying to figure out the source, current location, and path of a stream that was once known as Niuhelewai. The stream is on older maps, but cannot be located on current ones. We can see a trickle now and then when it rains hard from our campus, but we find it hard to believe that this is the same stream that used to irrigate acres of loʻi kalo and rice all the way down to Iwilei. If you can help, please let me know. Me ke aloha pumehana, Kumu M.
I live along Auld Lane in Palama on Oahu. Ground water is about 10 inches from the surface Was a steam there?
I live on the makai (south) side of Punchbow. A creek run through several tunnels, through Makiki, and beneath streets to empty into the Alawai.
What is its name and when was it passed through culverts and tunnels?