LIHUE — A passing rain shower Friday added real-world excitement to the Make A Splash water education festival presented by the county’s Department of Water at the north Vidinha Stadium fields.
“God is making a splash,” said Dustin Moises of the DOW. “The water coming down now we’ll be enjoying 25 years from now, because that’s how long it takes for the water to percolate.”
Nearly 700 fifth-grade students participated.
“This (rain) is where everything starts,” said Jonel Kaohelauli‘i of the DOW. “This is the start of the water cycle. The water cycle is the base of all this Make A Splash water education, and is mentioned in each of the 10 stations we have today. This is the real thing — hands on — that students can experience.”
The Make A Splash festival brings the water community, including partnering organizations like Grove Farm Company, Aqua Engineers, the state Department of Health, the East and West Soil and Water Conservation Districts, the Nature Conservancy and others together to provide a collaborative, interactive, hands-on water education on the life-giving resource.
One of the new venues is the Mauka to Many to Makai station hosted by Grove Farm, which just the night before had addressed the Kauai Chamber of Commerce third-quarter membership meeting with the topic through its Sustainable Kauai platform.
“This shows the many uses of water, from when it falls as rain until it reaches the ocean,” said Todd Ozaki of Grove Farm. “It also demonstrates how people collaborate to share this resource.”
Students arriving for the day-long experience came from public, private and charter schools, said Jason Fujinaka of the DOW.
“We have some representatives from the Big Island and Molokai going through the stations with the students,” Fujinaka said.
“We’re the only island in the state that offers this water-education festival that is celebrated globally,” Fujinaka said.
”The other islands’ representatives hope to establish similar programs on their respective islands. Previously, we had interested people, but the programs never got off the ground,” he said.
