Hawaii Official Delayed Releasing Water for More Than 5 Hours as Fires Raged On: Report
One Hawaii state official is facing fierce criticism over the use of water resources as wildfires torched the island of Maui.
Kaleo Manuel, formerly first deputy of the Commission on Water Resource Management of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, has since been reassigned to another position, the Honolulu Civil Beat reported Wednesday.
The official stalled for hours as private land management and agricultural companies sought state water resources for local firefighters on Aug. 8, according to an Aug. 15 Civil Beat report.
Manuel told West Maui Land Co. to obtain permission from a downstream farm before he allotted the company access to state-controlled water, the report said.
The company sought to make the resources available for Maui Fire Department firefighters responding to the emergency, according to the Civil Beat.
The official ultimately relented, only five hours later — after the wildfire had spread, according to the Civil Beat.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources is denying wrongdoing on Manuel’s part.
It said the official has been reassigned as part of an agency realignment for post-fire relief efforts.
“This deployment does not suggest that First Deputy Manuel did anything wrong,” the department said in a statement to the Civil Beat.
“The purpose of this deployment is to permit CWRM and the Department to focus on the necessary work to assist the people of Maui recover from the devastation of wildfires,” it said.
The Maui wildfires proved to be among the deadliest in American history.
The death toll of the disaster amounted to 115 as of Tuesday, according to ABC News. Hundreds of people are still missing.
During a 2022 online event, Manuel called for the use of water resources on the basis of “equity.”
“In a just society, this man would be thrown in prison for murder,” Collin Rugg of Trending Politics said in a post Saturday on X, the platform formerly called Twitter.
“Wokeism literally costs lives,” he said.
REPORT: M. Kaleo Manuel, who was responsible for water management during the Maui fires, waited five hours to release water to residents who were burned alive.
During a debate last year, Manuel said water usage should be based on ‘equity.’
Wokeism literally costs lives.
“Let… pic.twitter.com/at8WoPiA4p
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 19, 2023
The delay over water use is likely to spur new disputes over Hawaii’s water resources, specifically as to how private companies may use them, according to the Civil Beat.
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