Even with its occasional drought-induced conservation measures, Hawaii is a place that for too long has taken its water supply for granted.

Fortunately, the process has begun for a more proactive approach to the management of what is our most precious resource. The formation of a Fresh Water Council, made up of various experts, government agency officials and representatives of interest groups, is an encouraging development that deserves broad-based support.

For starters, Gov. David Ige should sign the package of bills supported by the council. The legislation includes measures that would standardize an audit program to track water losses statewide, institute a loan program for the purchase and installation of water infrastructure improvements and increase the reuse of water for non-drinking uses in state and county facilities.

Government should be the role model here, but ultimately the responsibility for better stewardship of water supplies rests with both the public and private sector. Full cooperation will be needed to fulfill the goals the council has set out in what it’s dubbed “Wai Maoli: Hawaii Fresh Water Initiative.“

That initiative has set 2030 as the target year for achieving significant improvement in the state’s water security. Through conservation or new sources, the goal is to extend the reliable daily supply of fresh water by 100 million gallons.

Members of the council met recently with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser editorial board to describe the program. What’s most encouraging is an openness to different approaches, and the commitment to support new improvements to the infrastructure and innovations that could make water conservation and reclamation a more integral part of living in the islands.

Roughly one-third of the supply increase is projected to come from water reuse. Enabling facilities to be built within scattered communities — everything from residential rainwater catchment to decentralized water-treatment systems — should result in better reclamation of water with greater efficiency.

Water that’s simply discharged into the ocean or otherwise lost should be reused, including the so-called “grey water” that’s already run through one cycle in appliances or showers, for instance.

Recharging the aquifer also is a core element of the plan. That can be done by preserving reservoirs and encouraging retention basins in developments to see that heavy rainfall makes it back into the groundwater supply, instead of becoming storm-water runoff.

Finally, conservation strategies remain a key factor, with the aim of reducing waste through better monitoring of leaks, management of irrigation and direction of potable water to its highest and best use.

The development rush of the last several years, and the projects in the pipeline — Kakaako, Ho‘opili, Koa Ridge — are looming with the potential for driving up water consumption radically.

It doesn’t help at all that water consumption happens fairly carelessly now, owing to the fact that water rates are kept artificially low and do not reflect the true value of the precious resource. People would not let the tap run, or pointlessly water lawns in the noonday sun if they were paying what the water is really worth.

Hawaii residents have watched with mounting concern the struggles California has experienced managing its endangered water supply, through rationing and other strict measures.

As difficult as that state’s experience has been, Hawaii’s would be worse. Isolated in the Pacific, the islands must be self-reliant, and get ahead of the curve.

This is bound to be a difficult challenge, developing the right policies and systems to enhance the state’s water security, so it’s a relief to see that beginning to happen. There is no time — or water — to waste.