About the Project

Our mission is to empower students, teachers,
and the community to work together to restore the ecosystem in the Ala Wai Canal.

The Problem

Since its creation the Ala Wai Canal has been a depository for mud, organic debris, trash and various other pollutants. Sludge (rotten, organic material) forms and accumulates as a result of oxygen deficiency.  Within the sludge, putrefactive bacteria decompose the organic matter, but also produce harmful gases such as methane, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. These compounds result in the canal having a toxic environment.

A Potential Solution

Bioremediation is the introduction of living organisms to enable an environmentally friendly means of removing pollutants from soil and water without negatively impacting or altering the natural ecosystem.  Nearly all organic compounds can be digested by bacteria. In Japan and Hawai’i, there are multiple examples of the use of Effective Microorganisms® (EM®) successfully eliminating sludge from previously polluted waterways.  The Genki balls made for this project are mud balls that contain EM•1® (a solution made from EM®), which sink to the bottom of the canal to digest the sludge.


The Project Goal

The Genki Ala Wai Project is a non-profit project under the Hawai’i Exemplary State Foundation. The project aims to use bioremediation technology to make the Ala Wai Canal fishable and swimmable again by 2026.  A “systems” approach is used to provide for flood mitigation within the watershed, while the EM® are deployed to remediate conditions further downstream.  Our goal is to empower all stakeholders within the ahupua`a to be involved in the effort: students, teachers, and the community working together to restore the Ala Wai Canal.


How We Started

The use of EM•1® to clean the canal was first conceived by our members in 2006 when 48 million gallons of sewage were diverted into the Ala Wai Canal following a storm event that compromised a major waste line servicing the adjacent areas. However, it wouldn’t be until our members met with Dr. Ken Kaneshiro and later signed an MOU to be a part of the non-profit Hawai’i Exemplary State Foundation that Genki Ala Wai was established on March 19, 2019. Since officially beginning our operations on April 19, 2019, we have made and tossed over 100,000 Genki Balls!