A house fire just hours after water restrictions were put in place was not what Napier's water supply needed, and many residents are questioning the cause of this week's water crisis.
Fire crews attended the blaze at an abandoned building at 10pm last night and had to use the precious resource to keep it from catching on neighbouring properties.
Plenty of residents seemed unfazed by the restrictions as 1NEWS found many washing their cars at a self-service car wash.
However good news spared the blushes of those not heeding the warnings as reservoir levels had refilled to 80 per cent before midday.
"All of our reservoirs are now looking more healthy in terms of water levels," Jon Kingsford from the Napier City Council told a media briefing today.
The council says heavy water usage due to dry weather meant the reservoirs were unable to refill faster than they were being emptied.
They council also said Napier residents use twice the national average of water per day compared to other Kiwis.
But many residents told 1 NEWS they found that hard to believe.
"It's a bit hard to imagine that it happened overnight unless half the population were filling their swimming pools," one resident said.
Many said the restrictions caught them off guard, including government minister and local MP Stuart Nash. He says he'll be requesting a meeting with Mayor Bill Dalton and CEO of the council Wayne Jack for a "please explain".
"I was watering my camellias on Sunday and I had no idea we had this crisis. And I read about it in the paper. So I think the Napier City Council might have to have a look at their overall comms plan," Mr Nash said in Wellington today.
However Mayor Bill Dalton applauded the response of locals.
"The proof of the pudding is in the eating and if you saw the response and how the reservoirs actually built up last night it proves that the message did get out there," he said.
Black coloured water was still being reported coming from taps as late as this morning but the council's Jon Kingsford said that is normal and he gave residents permission to run their taps to clear the murky water.
"That's not uncommon in water supplies from time to time. And that resulted from us bringing a bore online operationally for the first time in our network."
The council has now brought forward an education campaign to try reduce water usage, but it won't be looking into what specifically caused the water levels to drop so low on Sunday to Monday.
"We're not going to drive round and inspect private properties' water use leading into this event, OK. That's what we're not going to do," Mr Kingsford said.
Restrictions have been brought down to level two warnings as of 4pm today, with sprinklers only to be used in the early morning and late at night.
SHARE ME