August 1, 2024 | Originally published in Ka Wai Ola
By: Martina Kamaka, MD
Saturday, June 8, 2024, was a beautiful day at Kualoa Beach Park. Dozens of single- and double-hulled canoes gathered to celebrate the legacy of voyaging as part of the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC). Locals and visitors swam in the waters and clambered onto waʻa (canoes) for rides in Kāneʻohe Bay.
Just a few days later, on June 13, those festivities would have been impossible. On that day, the Department of Health (DOH) issued yet another brown water advisory for Kāneʻohe Bay.
“Brown water” fouls the coastline when heavy rain or floodwaters flush pollutants from the land, contaminating the ocean with toxic chemicals, flood debris, and sewage from overflowing cesspools.
Brown water advisories are becoming more frequent. That’s because severe weather events are increasing as our climate heats up. In addition, the seas are rising, contributing to long term and chronic contamination of our waters and ocean…READ THE FULL ARTICLE>
Martina Leialoha Kamaka, MD, FAAFP is a Native Hawaiian Family Physician from Kāneohe, Hawaiʻi and an Associate Professor in the Department of Native Hawaiian Health at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM). She graduated from JABSOM and completed her Family Medicine residency in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She is passionate about Native Hawaiian and Indigenous health equity, which includes environmental health.