Why was there no water to fight the fire in Maui? | Naomi Klein and Kapuaala Sproat

Big corporations, golf courses and hotels have been taking water from locals for years. Now the fire may result in even more devastating water theft

All over Maui, golf courses glisten emerald green, hotels manage to fill their pools and corporations stockpile water to sell to luxury estates. And yet, when it came time to fight the fires, some hoses ran dry. Why?

The reason is the long-running battle over west Maui's most precious natural resource: water. That's why, on Tuesday 8 August, when Terearii Chandler-ao was fleeing the fires in Lahaina, she grabbed a bag of clothes, some food - and something a little unconventional: a box filled with water use permit applications.