Maui Official's Ties to Obama Foundation Raise Questions After Decision to Delay Water
A Hawaii official who has been accused of withholding water from firefighters during a critical point in the Maui wildfire was previously named a “leader” by the Obama Foundation in 2019.
M. Kaleo Manuel, who served as deputy director of the Hawaii Commission on Water Resource Management, has been moved to a different position pending an investigation of the matter, according to local ABC News affiliate KITV.
West Maui Land Company sought release of the water around 1 p.m. August 8 during the deadly wildfire, but Manuel declined the request saying he would have to check with local farmers beforehand.
He finally authorized the release at 6 p.m. that evening, according to the company, the Star Advertiser reported.
At least 111 people died in the wildfire, which swept through Lahaina area, making it the most deadly in the United States in over 100 years.
Additionally, over 2,200 buildings have been destroyed or damaged, about 86 percent of which were residential.
Lahaina Maui residents are questioning the government’s failure to issue fire alarms, delayed water supply during fires, and the power company’s long-standing disregard for fire warnings.
Despite fires scorching over 100,000 acres on Maui from 2016 to 2020:
•Maui’s Emergency… pic.twitter.com/UPprWLhWJh
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) August 18, 2023
The West Maui Land Company wrote in an Aug. 10 letter to Manuel that his commission would not grant permission for the company to divert streams to fill reservoirs, resulting in significant loss.
“We watched the devastation around us without the ability to help,” the company said in the letter. “We anxiously awaited the morning knowing that we could have made more water available to MFD if our request had been immediately approved.”
In a Wednesday statement, the Department of Land and Natural Resources encouraged the public to avoid making judgments about Manuel’s decision-making “until all the facts are known,” according to Honolulu Civil Beat.
The DLNR notes on its website that Manuel is “one of 200 inaugural Obama Leaders representing the Asia-Pacific region with the Obama Foundation.”
In a November 2022 livestream, he said that native Hawaiians viewed water in sacred terms.
“We’ve become used to looking at water as something that we use, and not something that we revere. It’s a shift in value set. We can reconnect to that traditional value set,” he said.
Here is M. Kaleo Manuel, the Hawaii water official who refused to release water resources and let landowners fight the Maui fire, explaining his “philosophy” about water:
“Native Hawaiians treated water as one of the earthly manifestations of a god…We’ve become used to looking… pic.twitter.com/hjsWqdVtxf
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 17, 2023
“So really my motto is let water connect us and not divide us,” Manuel added. “We can share it, but it requires true conversations about equity.”
Former President Barack Obama, who grew up in Hawaii, posted a video Monday encouraging people to give to the relief organizations responding to the wildfire.
It will take all of us coming together and doing what we can to help those in need in Maui and Lāhainā right now. I hope you’ll join me in donating to the Hawai’i Red Cross today: https://t.co/CPtVJ8fGSq pic.twitter.com/yvIDCG15MP
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 15, 2023
“The thing about it is at a time like this thoughts and prayer are not enough, we have to step up and we have to help those families and we have to help the people of Lahaina rebuild,” Obama said.
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