Experts from California, Eastern Canada and Europe join Okanagan discussions on water and watershed resilience during fourth consecutive drought year
syilx Territory, Kelowna, B.C. – More than 150 water scientists, First Nations leaders, government staff, water suppliers and youth gathered in Kelowna Oct. 7–9, 2026 for the 2026 Environmental Flows Conference (EF2026), bringing together Indigenous perspectives and international expertise to discuss the future of water.
Held at the Coast Capri Hotel on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the syilx Okanagan people, the conference was co-hosted by the Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB), the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) and the Canadian Water Resources Association (CWRA). It was the third conference in a series that began in 2018, and the first co-hosted by all three organizations.
The Okanagan’s fourth consecutive drought year underscored the urgency of planning for environmental flows — the water needed to sustain healthy aquatic ecosystems.
City of Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas helped open the conference and welcomed attendees to Kelowna, while OBWB Chair Blair Ireland addressed the challenge in his opening-day remarks.
“No single government, nation, or agency can manage this alone. Water doesn’t care, water knows no boundaries and we’ve got to work together for our future,” said Ireland at the conference.
“For most of our history, we have treated the water left in a stream as simply a bonus, after everyone else took their share. Environmental flows ask us to turn that around. They ask us to decide, deliberately and in advance, how much water a creek needs to stay alive, and to plan around that. Without a healthy ecosystem, we don’t have anything.”
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