One of the most coveted coffees in the world comes from Kona, a region of small farms scattered across the misty volcanic slopes of Hawaii’s Big Island, where the coffee crops thrive on afternoon rains. So do the farmers, who rely on rainwater to fill the tanks that supply their homes and orchards. Parts of the area have no county water infrastructure.
But the stored water supplies of hundreds of farmers are now gone, dumped into the ground 10 days ago when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit the island. The quake destroyed or damaged catchment tanks around the Kona district and left many people without ready access to water.
“Things just started falling off shelves and crumbling,” said KayLynne Santana, 71, who farms coffee and macadamia nuts in the area, describing the earthquake as she pointed out the damage around her farm. “My husband got the flashlight and looked at our water tank. The whole thing was down.” So were the rock walls she and her husband built years ago around their farm.
Living without county water for decades, the Santanas have learned to conserve what they have and make do with what they can.
