Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

UBCO

UBCO engineers dive into local flood recovery, prevention

UBCO engineers dive into local flood recovery, prevention

While infrastructure clean-up and repairs continue across the province after the extreme weather events of 2021, UBC Okanagan researchers have created measures to help municipalities mitigate damage from future climate-related disasters. “Communities across British Columbia have established strong policies and strategies to prepare and limit damage due to these extreme events, but policies related to post-disaster management are still in their infancy,” says Sadia Ishaq, a doctoral candidate in UBCO’s School of Engineering and lead author of a new paper that examines municipal risk management strategies.

UBCO looks at smart technology to safeguard drinking water

UBCO looks at smart technology to safeguard drinking water

Delivery of safe and high-quality drinking water is an essential public service, but it’s not easy to monitor water quality in real-time close to customers’ homes. Thanks to a new research partnership with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, TELUS and the Regional District of North Okanagan, researchers at UBC’s Okanagan campus will begin to address this gap by leveraging new sensors to wirelessly monitor water quality in the distribution system.

Raising awareness of Indigenous water rights in B.C.

Raising awareness of Indigenous water rights in B.C.

Now, he works as a lecturer at UBCO, where his work is focused on Indigenous water rights and customary laws. On Jan. 26, Sam was one of the keynote speakers at a workshop designed “to bring together diverse stakeholders to discuss and improve understanding of Aboriginal water rights in British Columbia,” according to the event page. The objective of the three-hour workshop was to raise awareness around the implications of Aboriginal title and rights as they relate to water in B.C., within the Syilx People’s unceded territory.

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