Golf courses, big resorts and the Marine Corps Base on the Windward side of Oʻahu top the list of the state’s biggest water-hungry consumers.
The urban center of Honolulu makes up about 23% of the state’s population, but accounted for almost 40% of water consumption in the state in 2024.
With a population of nearly 345,000, the metropolitan area — marked by its high rises and resorts as opposed to the rest of the island of Oʻahu — used more water last year than all three other counties combined. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that individual city dwellers are using more than their rural peers.
Several of the county’s top water consumers, including the airport and the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa, are located in urban Honolulu . The state doesn’t have recent data breaking down whethe