Kelowna, B.C. – The Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB) and its Okanagan WaterWise program has teamed up with UBC Okanagan’s Institute for Biodiversity, Resilience, and Ecosystem Services (BRAES) for an online screening of “Lost Rivers” and panel discussion. The event is set for Thursday, March 25, 7-9 p.m.
The event is in celebration of Canada Water Week, which this year runs March 21-27, and UN World Water Day celebrated on the 22nd.
“We look forward to holding these events in person in the future, but over the past year we’ve all gotten used to meeting online,” noted OBWB Executive Director Anna Warwick Sears. “We’re happy that we can still find a way to connect with the community and celebrate water!”
“Lost Rivers” is a Canadian production, beautifully-shot and inspiring, that tells the story of almost every industrial city, where countless rivers once flowed freely. But as cities grew and rivers became polluted they became conduits for deadly waterborne diseases like cholera. The solution two centuries ago was to bury rivers underground and merge them with sewer networks. Today, under most cities, they still flow, out of sight and out of mind… until now.
“Lost Rivers” leads us down the drain into vast underground museums of urban development. Guiding us through the hidden river networks of London, Brescia (Italy), Montreal and Toronto, intrepid groups of subterranean explorers known as “drainers” reveal the buried waterways that house the secrets of each city’s past.
Following the film, join us for a conversation with a few of the people involved in “daylighting,” and “re-wilding” projects in the Okanagan, helping draw attention to these hidden and important waterways and bringing them into the light.
Our Q&A guests:
- ALEKSANDRA DULIC is a UBC Okanagan Associate Professor of Creative Studies and Principal Investigator with UBCO’s Okanagan Waterways project, a multi-media project to draw attention to the waterways of the valley. She is also a member of BRAES.
- DARRYL ARSENAULT is a fisheries biologist at Arsenault Environmental Consulting. He was project manager for Kelowna’s Fascieux Creek daylighting project at KLO Middle School and has been working on creek rehabilitation in the Okanagan for the past 23 years.
- KARI ALEX is a fisheries biologist and fluvial geomorphologist with Okanagan Nation Alliance and has been involved in several water-related rehabilitation projects including the Okanagan River Restoration Initiative.
- ANNA WARWICK SEARS is the Okanagan Basin Water Board’s Executive Director and will provide an overall context to the importance of these projects in addressing flood concerns, habitat conservation, and more.
This is a FREE event, but numbers are limited. Pre-registration through Eventbrite is required at https://lostrivers-okanagan.eventbrite.ca/.
Find the trailer and more information about the film, “Lost Rivers,” at https://catbirdproductions.ca/en/productions/lost-rivers.