Hawai'i Community Development Authority

Hirono called the effort to create a new drinking water source important to help protect Hawaii against climate change.

By Marcel Honore / June 14, 2024

Hawaii is getting nearly $19 million in federal funding to help design and build a desalination facility in Kalaeloa that would convert seawater into drinking water, Sen. Mazie Hirono announced in a press release Friday.

Those dollars come from a U.S. Department of the Interior program to fund water recycling and desalination projects, and they’ll go toward the Honolulu Board of Water Supply’s Kalaeloa Seawater Desalination Project, the release said.

Oahu’s Kalaeloa region could eventually get a desalination facility to convert nearly 2 million gallons of seawater into freshwater each day. (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2018)

No timeline or total cost for the project was given, but Hirono called the effort an important step toward making Hawaii more resilient against climate change. Specifically, the desalination facility would ease Oahu’s reliance on groundwater somewhat while providing a new, sustainable drinking water source, she said.

The facility would produce some 1.7 million gallons of potable water each day and reduce water transfers from Central Oahu to Ewa, according to the release. It could eventually expand to produce 5 million gallons a day, the release added.