Tonight, Merrittonians will have the chance to share their ideas for water management in the Nicola Valley with a hydrologic engineer.

Jeremy Cooke will be the guest speaker for the second instalment of the Nicola Watershed Community Round Table (NWCRT)’s series of public forums on water issues.

His area of focus is water infrastructure such as dams and dykes as well as riparian rehabilitation.

“He has experience with the dams, many of the water systems that are used for agriculture, and he has also done quite a few river riparian projects,” said NWCRT’s Al Mackay-Smith.

The event’s precursor took place back in October and focused on local flooding, water cycles and climate adaptation. It was geared towards the big picture of how water systems work in the Nicola Valley, Mackay-Smith said.

“So now we are trying to move more into some solutions that have been utilized in our valley before,” he said, noting the direction is largely based on feedback from the last group, who said they want some ‘nuts and bolts’ on how to mitigate damage from flooding over the past two years.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District is financially supporting tonight’s event, focused flooding infrastructure solutions. (Photo contributed)

When asked how the conversations at tonight’s meeting might lead to tangible solutions, Mackay-Smith stressed the NWCRT is not a decision-making body — their mandate is educating the public. He added he is hopeful members of local government attend.

“We cannot really force the hand of anyone, but we sure hope that the education will help those government agencies that can make decisions, give them some direction and how the public is feeling about things,” he said.

Inspired by the world café method of dialogue, participants at the event will be work through questions posed by Cooke in small groups facilitated by NWCRT members, and the organization plans to take notes on the conversations.

“So it is a productive way to get a variety of people talking at a table that otherwise might not talk,” Mackay-Smith said.“I think it is really important for this time in our history for people who have different opinions to talk to one-another, so that is what we are trying to promote.”

The free public dialogue is set for 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 24 at the civic centre.