Kelowna, B.C. – The Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB) and Aqua Forum co-hosted a livestreaming of the AquaHacking 2021 – Western Canada Challenge semi-finals yesterday afternoon. In the end, four university teams, looking to make waves in the water world, were announced, solidifying their chances of taking their solutions for some of the west’s most critical water issues to the next round.
A total of 137 participants registered from post-secondary institutes across Western Canada, Ontario and Quebec, forming 21 teams, of which 10 pitched at the semi-final. The issues identified by Western Canada water leaders as critical for solving in the west were: optimization of drinking water/wastewater treatment plants; on-farm nutrient capture & recycling; toxic algal blooms, and; innovative ‘social’ water technologies for water information.