Three years after the fire razed Lahaina town, much of the public focus has largely been on restoring commercial activity to Front Street. But beneath the push to rebuild lies a deeper question for the kupa of Maui Komohana: what is Lahaina’s water future? Residents and local leaders of Maui Komohana recently gathered on Front Street to celebrate the recovery progress and the ongoing efforts to bring commercial activity back to the heart of the town. The railing along the historic waterfront was rebuilt, over 1,500 properties were cleared, and approval for commercial permits is gaining steam. The town is beginning to reclaim aspects of its former vitality, but this modest step towards commercial revitalization falls short of restorative justice for a community that has long struggled against the enduring legacies of plantation capitalism.
Since the fire, e hoʻihoʻi i ka nani, return to glory, has been the rallying call of Lahaina residents and proponents of Native Hawaiian and environmental rights. Amidst the devastation lies an opportunity to restore ka Malu ʻUlu o Lele, the shady breadfruit grove of Lele, that made Lahaina the perfect seat for our Kingdom and garnered the nickname “Venice of the Pacific” from foreign travelers. The environment was bioengineered that way, and water was captured and harvested deliberately so there was an abundance flowing through vast networks of streams and inland ponds. Kahuwai were tasked with making sure the water was properly managed so everyone had enough to support loʻi kalo and other food cultivation. More than a century of water and land mismanagement, however, turned Lahaina into a tinderbox. Droughts exacerbated by climate change further dried the landscape, while invasive grasses spread across unmanaged lands, creating abundant fuel for the devastating fire that tore through Maui Komohana on August 8th, 2023.
In the mid-1800s, plantation companies built ditch systems and wells that diverted and hoarded enormous volumes of Maui Komohana’s water to irrigate sugar. They cleared ʻulu groves, emptied fishponds, and dried up loʻi to maximize their profits. When the industry declined in the 1960s, those same corporations retained control of the water flowing through their old infrastructure and shifted their product from sugar to resorts and luxury development. The wildfires, salty wells, and low streamflow seen today are symptoms of that continued reign. More than 75 percent of Lahaina’s water remains privately controlled by plantation subsidiaries and is used to fill resort pools and water estate lawns and golf courses without regulation, while the rest of the town is limited by drought restrictions and remains vulnerable to the next disaster.
The solution to these problems and the opportunity to restore a more abundant Lahaina exists in the future of water management. The public trust doctrine in the Hawaiʻi Constitution mandates the state protect water for present and future generations, with the Commission on Water Resource Management (“CWRM”) being the primary agency with this duty. CWRM properly used their power in 2022 and proactively designated the Lahaina Aquifer Sector as a ground and surface water management area, citing declining rainfall, ongoing water disputes, and the need to protect public trust resources. The designation process requires every water user to apply for a permit, effectively upending the status quo set by legacy plantation corporations. Mayor Bissen and community organizations have also pushed for County acquisition of water systems and public control, which has potential to flip the script. But these efforts have been met with corporate opposition and deliberate delays by the current Administration.
As the three-year anniversary of the fire approaches, we must be critical of what “progress” truly means. Rebuilding the photo-worthy facades sought out by tourists is not going to return the glory to Lahaina. Restoration cannot be measured solely by the railings along the waterfront or by the health of a non-native tree. True restoration requires dismantling the very systems that set Lahaina on fire. It must be measured by the return of water.
Reflecting on the Last Three Years
Over the last three years, cleanup efforts have moved steadily forward, but the water permit process has been stalled at every turn by constant interference from the Green Administration and its evident sympathy for large legacy corporations.
The stall tactics started right after the fire with the “redeployment” of former Deputy Director Kaleo Manuel, who led the charge to designate Maui Komohana in the first place. Next came the hijacking of CWRM’s loea seat, reserved for someone with expertise in traditional Hawaiian water management. Governor Green stalled the nomination process and then unlawfully restarted it, sidestepping qualified candidates like Hannah Kihalani Springer to nominate someone tied to a major Maui Komohana diverter.
DLNR and the Attorney General’s Office followed the same blueprint, and aligned themselves with two of Maui’s largest diverters who had falsely claimed they lacked water for firefighting in order to justify a larger allotment, a claim the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court rejected outright. When the legislature tried to shield the permitting process from this kind of interference, the bills were opposed by the very officials suspected of causing it.
Then came more delays when a lawsuit by TY Management over mismanagement of the Honokōhau Ditch System was filed against Maui Land & Pineapple (“MLP”). The two companies have inundated CWRM resources over the last year and were given ample opportunities to present on their charitable endeavors, all while the delay allows them to continue to pump and divert millions of gallons everyday for profit. MLP has strategically repositioned itself as a willing partner in expanding public water access by offering to hand over the neglected infrastructure to the County in exchange for more water credits and a fast pass to develop luxury homes. The current proposed deal ensures taxpayers pick up the check for a century of corporate neglect.
None of this is incidental. Every day a permit sits undecided is another day water diverters keep profiting from the status quo, and another day the community goes without the water it’s owed. To the legacy corporations, the system isn’t broken: it’s working exactly as they intended.
The Fight for Restorative Justice
Despite the distractions, political interference, and corporate maneuvering, the community has remained steadfast in pushing back against the status quo. In response to Governor Green’s push to reopen Lahaina to tourism, for example, residents camped on the beach for 175 days to “fish for housing,” calling attention to a housing crisis made worse by short-term vacation rentals. That fight culminated in Bill 9, which aims to phase out short-term rentals in apartment-zoned districts and rein in the offshore investors profiting off displaced families. The council passed it in December 2025 after hundreds of hours of testimony, but not without opposition. One Council member opposed to the Bill was Yuki Sugimura, who has since made fighting it a centerpiece of her mayoral campaign against the incumbent. Although primarily viewed as a housing issue, CWRM has found that short-term rentals use twice as much water as owner-occupied homes, which contributes to the problem.
The community showed the same resolve over CWRM’s loea seat, protesting the Governor’s attempted coup of the seat until Earthjustice and dozens of organizations forced Springer’s appointment in March 2025. That vigilance has carried into the fight over the Water Use Permit Applications, which are still awaiting decisionmaking. Community leaders have spoken on panels, taken to ample media platforms, hosted conferences, testified at dozens of meetings and hearings, and some have even entered political races to push for a better water future.
While rebuilding their lives and recovering from the 2023 fires, the kupa of Maui Komohana have also spent the last three years challenging the longstanding injustice of legacy corporate control over water by seeking permits for public trust uses of water, including traditional and customary practices such as loʻi kalo cultivation. Yet despite this opportunity to reexamine water allocations under current legal standards, CWRM has allowed longstanding disputes between powerful water users—including golf courses and large landowners—to persist, leaving public trust uses in administrative limbo. Any meaningful path toward recovery must begin by listening to the community that has been on the front lines since the beginning: E hoʻihoʻi i ka nani was never a call to rebuild Front Street for foreigners. It is a call to restore mauka to makai streamflow, regain public control of water infrastructure, and reverse centuries of injustice.
Ka Huli Ao’s Native Hawaiian Rights Clinic is helping local ʻohana fight for this vision, ensuring the voices and rights of the community are protected as the demand for true restoration of Lahaina persists. CWRM has the authority to take action, dismantle the status quo and compel true restoration; all that’s missing is the political will to take action. Without a proactive approach to managing water for present and future generations, efforts to restore Lahaina risk addressing the symptoms without confronting the deeper problem.
Three years after the fire, there is still plenty of work to be done.
