REPORT: ‘Equity’-Obsessed Hawaii Official Delayed Water Release For Five Hours During Maui Fires

M. Kaleo Manuel, who was recently reassigned from his post as deputy director of the Hawaii Commission on Water Resource Management, reportedly delayed the release of crucial water for up to five hours as wildfires devastated Maui.

Manuel, an “Asian Pacific Leader” with the Obama Foundation, gained notoriety in the days following the deadly blaze due to a past interview in which he said water should not be seen as “something we can use” but rather an “earthly manifestation of a god.”

“Native Hawaiians treated water as one of the earthly manifestations of a god… So that reverence for a resource and reciprocity in relation is important to our well-being. Over time, we’ve become used to looking at water as something that we use, and not necessarily something that we revere,” Manuel said. “If we can look as islanders at how we reconnect to those traditional value sets. My motto is, let water connect us and not divide us… It requires true conversations about equity.”

In the days following the wildfires, Manuel was transferred to a new position, according to a statement from the state’s land and natural resources department. “This deployment does not suggest that First Deputy Manuel did anything wrong,” the department said in a statement.

But in an August 10 letter to Manuel, the West Maui Land Company said that his commission refused its request to divert streams to fill landowners’ reservoirs in the hard-hit Lahaina area until the fire had already gotten out of control and spread to a wooded area. According to a report from the Honolulu Civil Beat, Manuel had asked the company to consult with a local farmer about the impact of diverting the water before approving the request.

“We watched the devastation around us without the ability to help,” reads the letter. “We anxiously awaited the morning knowing that we could have made more water available to MFD [Maui Fire Department] if our request had been immediately approved.”