The Pepe'ekeo community this week celebrated groundbreaking for the Andrade Camp Water System Improvements Project that will overhaul the water system for about 20 plantation houses.

The $485,000 project will convert the plantation-era water system into a modern county water system. The project is being financed by U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development.

Most of the residents are former plantation employees in their late 70s and 80s who remained in the housing after the plantation closed.

Construction on the water project is scheduled to begin today.