The failure of the Kaloko Reservoir was indeed the worst natural disaster to hit Kaua'i since Hurricane Iniki in 1992. And it's a clarion call for the state to take decisive action now to address our aging dam system.

The problem is not new. For years, state officials knew Hawai'i's dams represented significant safety risks. As reported by The Advertiser's Karen Blakeman, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the state's dam system a "D" grade just last March. In 2001 the state received the same grade.

Part of the problem is that most of Hawai'i's 130 dams are privately owned, built in the early 1900s, long before there were rigorous safety standards. And while the state regulates all dams, it can't force private owners, who say they don't have the funds, to maintain their dams.

Still the state must take more aggressive steps to confront this issue as a matter of public safety. When asked about what the state had been doing to address the problem, Gov. Linda Lingle's comments were frank and disconcerting: "Nothing that I'm aware of," Lingle said.

This painful tragedy has now made us all aware of the risks. Now it's time to establish a comprehensive plan to address these problems in a reasonable time frame.

The state should prioritize a list of repairs that takes into account the condition of the dams as well as the location and potential danger to residential populations. It should also determine which of the private dams are worth saving to the point of creating public-private partnership deals in the name of public safety.

It also would be wise for the counties to adopt a land use policy that would make it harder for subdivisions to be built in isolated areas next to private dams such as Kaloko.

Action now surely will cost more money than the $164,000 the state now allocates for its one dam safety engineer and his small staff. And the disaster surely brings more urgency to Congressman Neil Abercrombie's push for federal funds to upgrade state-regulated, privately owned dams; the state should throw its full support behind such a plan.

Considering the tragic loss of life we've seen this week, the state can no longer sit back idly.