Speakers: Stuart Coleman and Michael Mezzacapo
Abstract:
To help Hawai‘i deal with the unprecedented COVID-19 and resulting hardships, the Work-4-Water Initiative aims to create a workforce of development projects, and in the process, reduce the amount of pollution from cesspools and support statewide resilient economic and community recovery plans. With more than 88,000 cesspools discharging nearly 53 million gallons of untreated sewage into the ground each day, Hawai‘i has been struggling for years to find solutions to its numerous wastewater issues. The Work-4-Water Initiative provides the state an immediate opportunity to jump-start the mandated replacement of cesspools, while simultaneously training and employing a specialized, non-tourism based workforce. Our plan will create shovel-ready projects across the state, stimulating the economy, and improving water quality and public health for residents and visitors alike through education, hands-on training, job creation, and pilot testing of more than 400 cesspool conversion sites on Hawai‘i, Maui, Kaua‘i, and O‘ahu.