Water Conservation on Maui

I would like to point out the inefficiency of watering plants (of all types) during the mid-day hours. I am often driving in Central Maui around noon and see many large sprinkler systems up and running, spraying large amounts of our precious water over the dry, parched Central Maui landscape on the West Maui side. You can also regularly see this happening to water the Sugarcane crop found along the Honoapiilani Highway, a crop that already uses an enormous amount of water to survive. A study from the University of Florida sited at least a 1.5% loss just from evaporation when you water during the daytime (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ae048) . This didn't include the loss numbers from wind-blown episodes, which happens frequently in Central Maui and elsewhere. There are around 35,000 acres of sugar planted on Maui on Alexander & Baldwin lands (Pacific Business News, Friday, January 29, 2010). Sugar needs about 1500 to 2500 mm of irrigation during the growing season. Even with the minimum of the 1500 mm of rainfall (equivalent to 60 inches of rainfall), 1.5% of this equals nearly an inch of rainfall that can be lost over a small area due to evaporation alone.
The moral of this story is, water in the early mornings, when winds are light and solar radiation is at a low rate. This will invariably save Maui's water while maintaining a healthy crop of grasses for foraging animals or for your sugarcane!
For a list of 25 things you can do to prevent water waste, please visit the Maui County Department of Water Supply's useful list here

Thanks for listening!