Cross-border waterway forum returns to Osoyoos, B.C.

Residents who live near Osoyoos Lake, on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, are in Osoyoos this week to discuss the health of the international waterway that connects them.

The water science forum made its return to the Okanagan Valley for the first time since 2015 – the event was to be held a couple of years ago but was put on hold due to the COVID pandemic.

“It’s about building relationships and having people work together to understand where each other is coming from. The whole goal is to have a healthier Osoyoos Lake in the end,” said Anna Warwick Sears, executive director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board.

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The forum will also be discussing lake health, water levels, impacts of climate change and current concerns for the international waterway.

“There’s quite a bit of development pressure both in the U.S. and Canada – people building around the lake and how do you manage that. Concerns about how many boats there are, endangered species, as well as invasive species,” said Warwick Sears.

This year the forum is featuring more Indigenous voices so they can share their cultural knowledge and history of the waterway.

“It’s important to understand that Indigenous people for years had economics, we had governance, we had leadership structures and we had an environmental policy,” said facilitator Aaron Derrickson.

“Those things existed and they have always existed. Now it’s about acknowledging what was and what has worked and bringing it into the present.”

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The forum allows participants to discuss strategies and solutions with scientists and researchers. The Okanagan Basin Water Board says the forum is just one part of their collaboration with the Okanagan Nation Alliance.

“Their nation has always been what we now would say on both sides of the boundaries, it’s just an artificial construct. We really need to all work together if we all want to have this shared waterbody in its best health possible,” Warwick Sears said.

The forum continues on Saturday.