Water rights and usage are contentious issues, especially on Maui, so Ciara Kahahane will have her work cut out for her. She has been tapped by the governor as the next administrator of state water resources, leading the state Commission on Water Resource Management.

That seat has only gotten hotter after a water-use controversy flared during the Lahaina wildfire. But there’s hope that Kahahane — a Kamehameha Schools-Maui grad and litigator in the Attorney General’s Office — will be a good fit for the job.