One Water Panel
The City and County of Honolulu recognizes that collaboration is key for climate change adaptation and successful water quality and quantity management in the face of climate change. With overwhelming support from the community and elected officials, the One Water Panel was codified as a City climate adaptation policy in Ordinance 20-47. The City is proud to have received the US Water Alliance’s US Water Prize 2022 in the Outstanding Public Sector Organization category in recognition of this collaborative framework.
Learn more about the City's One Water efforts by reviewing the brief Annual Report for 2022.
What is One Water?
One Water is a strategy that integrates the management of stormwater, wastewater, groundwater, sea water, freshwater, graywater, and recycled water in order to create resource and financial efficiencies. One Water will help the City and County address climate change impacts. The resilience and efficiencies created in a One Water Collaboration Framework, makes it so water resources may be abundant now, while preserving enough for future generations.
The One Water climate adaptation policy and City One Water Panel were established through City Ordinance 20-47 from a research project initiated by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, community and agency inputs to and City Council adoption of the O‘ahu Resilience Strategy, and a subsequent guidance document produced by the City’s Climate Change Commission.
Who is on the One Water Panel?
Per Ordinance 20-47, the One Water Panel is comprised of, but not limited to, directors and staff from the following departments:
- Department of Planning & Permitting,
- Department of Design & Construction,
- Department of Transportation Services,
- Department of Facility Maintenance,
- Department of Environmental Services,
- Department of Parks & Recreation,
- Honolulu Board of Water Supply, and
- Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency.
Other participating agencies include:
- Department of Budget & Fiscal Services
In 2021, these departments drafted an interdepartmental Memorandum of Understanding to confirm and facilitate interdepartmental efforts.
What are the benefits of a One Water Strategy?
A One Water Strategy helps to tackle climate change impacts by creating cross-agency collaboration and furthering capacity within agencies.
Some other benefits include:
- leveraging funds for projects that cannot be completed under a single entity, including coordinating on federal funding opportunities
- fostering understanding between utilities to identify overlapping challenges and opportunities
- protecting and efficiently using water resources through management efforts of conservation, recharge, and reuse
- identifying and addressing challenges in adapting to sea level rise and building more resiliency into infrastructure across water, wastewater, and stormwater sectors
- identifying target geographic regions to work collaboratively for climate change adaptation initiatives
What are some examples and other resources for One Water?
Check out the One Water White Paper or one page info sheet to learn more about Honolulu's One Water Strategy. Other cities have successfully implemented a One Water Strategy including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Milwaukee, and Denver.
Related Project
Storm Water Utility O‘ahu
Department of Facility Maintenance
More than 2,000 storm water utilities exist across 39 states, and more are formed each year. They help decrease the negative impacts of storm water runoff on the community and the environment.
The City and County of Honolulu is studying options for a future storm water utility as a reliable funding mechanism for managing storm water on O‘ahu.