Spotlight on a CPC Foundation Model Projects
Community-Based Watershed Improvement Activities and Education
Prior to the construction of the Ala Wai Canal in 1928, the area that is today Hawaii's famous Waikiki was an expansive natural wetland used for taro fields and duck ponds. The canal serves as a drainage for three major stream systems, Manoa, Palolo, and Makiki Streams which comprise the Ala Wai Watershed Complex.
This region of South Oahu is the most densely population in the State of Hawaii with more than 170,000 residents crammed into a total land area of only 16.3 square miles. On any given day, as many as 400,000 people may be concentrated in the tiny Waikiki subarea of only 8.8 square miles where some 250,000 vehicles travel its meager 1.8 square miles of roadway daily.
With this kind of intense urbanization and public use, it is no wonder that nearly a century after its construction, the Ala Wai Canal and its feeder streams have earned the reputation of being the most polluted water body in the State, regularly exceeding most state standards for pesticides, nutrients and fecal indicator bacteria.
The Ala Wai Watershed Association, Inc. (AWWA)—a strategic affiliate of the Community Partnership Center Foundation—is leading the effort to implement a more integrative, systems thinking approach in addressing environmental, public health, policy and all of the socio-economic issues surrounding the Ala Wai Watershed. The goal is to establish a new sustainable ecological balance that incorporates indigenous practices with modern technologies while accommodating societal changes that have occurred.
The communication, collaboration and coordinated action being organized by AWWA through a systems approach will lead to empowering the people to develop strategic solutions to complex problems and enable them to take charge of the communities where they reside. This community-based approach is being showcased by the CPC Foundation to serve as a program model to be exported and replicated anywhere in the world for addressing a multitude of issues and challenges to community resilience and their ability to thrive.
This region of South Oahu is the most densely population in the State of Hawaii with more than 170,000 residents crammed into a total land area of only 16.3 square miles. On any given day, as many as 400,000 people may be concentrated in the tiny Waikiki subarea of only 8.8 square miles where some 250,000 vehicles travel its meager 1.8 square miles of roadway daily.
With this kind of intense urbanization and public use, it is no wonder that nearly a century after its construction, the Ala Wai Canal and its feeder streams have earned the reputation of being the most polluted water body in the State, regularly exceeding most state standards for pesticides, nutrients and fecal indicator bacteria.
The Ala Wai Watershed Association, Inc. (AWWA)—a strategic affiliate of the Community Partnership Center Foundation—is leading the effort to implement a more integrative, systems thinking approach in addressing environmental, public health, policy and all of the socio-economic issues surrounding the Ala Wai Watershed. The goal is to establish a new sustainable ecological balance that incorporates indigenous practices with modern technologies while accommodating societal changes that have occurred.
The communication, collaboration and coordinated action being organized by AWWA through a systems approach will lead to empowering the people to develop strategic solutions to complex problems and enable them to take charge of the communities where they reside. This community-based approach is being showcased by the CPC Foundation to serve as a program model to be exported and replicated anywhere in the world for addressing a multitude of issues and challenges to community resilience and their ability to thrive.