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Lake levels are still a concern to flooding in certain areas of the Okanagan.
Therefore, it's important to hang onto sandbags if there is still potential for flooding in your area.
The Province has sent out an advisory telling residents in the Central Interior to dispose of sandbags under the instructions of local government.
The Province also cautions residents to use protective gear like gloves and rubber boots in order to avoid skin contact with the flood-contaminated sandbags.
There's also tips on wound care.
But according to Bruce Smith with the Regional District of the Central Okanagan, he says that the Province's instructions are pre-mature.
"We've still got a lot of water to go," said Smith. "Nobody should be removing anything or considering any moving of sandbags at this point."
Smith added that while the Province believes it's pertinent to be supplying disposal information, the Central Okanagan does not want to send a mixed message to residents.
"People shouldn't be removing their sandbags at all right now. So to tell people to remove their sandbags or what they will be doing with the sandbags is premature and we don't want to confuse people in anyway," he said.
"Right now, the lake's at a historic level, continues to be high and we've got wind events today. We had wind last night and it's not a time to be telling people what to do with their sandbags because they need to keep them in place. That's what they need to do with them."
But the Province said the timeliness of the release was important because many areas in B.C. are ready for sandbag disposal.
"We put up the release because it's a wide, geographic region and in many parts of the Central Interior, the flood threat has lessened, but we are very aware that in many parts it is still very much a threat," said Jordan Turner, communications manager with Emergency Management B.C.
"We're working on a plan. We've got 1.7 million sandbags that are out there...a thousand truckloads of sand, plus filling them. So for an individual property owner it may not seem like a big issue but for all the properties that are affected in the Central Okanagan, we want to have a good plan in place to deal with it."
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