Photo: RNZ / Peter Fowler
A Hawke's Bay town has been put under immediate level four water restrictions after the discovery of a major leak in the town's supply.
The district council said Waipukurau's Pukeroa Reservoir was "rapidly" loosing water on Wednesday morning and residents needed to urgently conserve water.
"We need residents to urgently conserve water or there is a real risk Waipukurau could run out of water."
The reservoir level had fallen as kow as 26 percent. At 9.05am, the council said the level was back to 30 percent but needed to reach 60 percent capacity to be safe.
"There is no need to panic or buy water, there will be enough for everyone so long as we continue to conserve water.
"We expect Level 4 Restrictions to remain in place until this evening to allow reservoirs to recover."
The council had confirmed a major leak on Porangahau Road was the cause of the sudden water loss.
There were no other breakages across the network.
At 7.45am, the council had said it could make 60 litres of water per second and the town was using roughly 230 litres per second. "There is a risk we may need to apply a boil water notice to Waipukurau if water use does not reduce."
According to the council's website, level 4 restrictions meant there was a total ban on outdoor water use.
Residents were asked to only use water for emergencies, not to use washing machines or dishwashers, do not "rush to flush", and limit showers to two minutes.
"It was a lot of water to have gone from a full reservoir to 26 percent in such a short period of time" - Central Hawke's Bay mayor Alex Walker
Central Hawke's Bay mayor Alex Walker told Morning Report the leak had been isolated, but people still needed to follow level 4 restrictions because only one main reservoir supplied the town.
"We don't have large stocks of water, we have long term projects to have back-up reservoirs and back-up sources but they are still a work in progress."
The leak along Porangahau Road was at a site where mains network renewal and associated roadworks were being carried out.
"It's a worksite that we can get to easily and it means the team are working on it right now but it was a lot of water to have gone from a full reservoir to 26 percent in such a short period of time," Walker said.
The whole town of about 4000 people, and local businesses, were affected by the restrictions.
Walker said the leak was only partly a legacy of lack of infrastructure investment.
"But also for a little place like us here, with a small number of ratepayers, to have the additional infrastructure for that additional resilience, the back-up reservoirs, the back-up volumes, those investments are quite a stretch.
"Right now our back-up project has been slowed down significantly because the borefield and treatment plant was flooded during Cyclone Gabrielle. We are still looking for additional funding to relocate that."
Residents were asked to report any major losses of water by calling 06 857 8060.
The council said it would keep locals up to date.