Businesses throughout Napier fear the city could grind to a halt, should the city's water supply run out.
After a level four water restriction was imposed by Napier City Council earlier today, saying there was a "very real risk" water could run out "soon", Thirsty Whale owner and Napier businessman Chris Sullivan, who owns seven local businesses, said "quite a few of them" could be affected.
"From our point of view, if we haven't got water we close and I don't think we'll be the only business. Napier will come to a grinding halt. Accommodation, toilets – what do you do if you haven't got water – the city stops and this is our busiest time of the year.
"We've had no warning about this at all, and that's probably the biggest issue for me. You would have thought we would have had some notification but to be told half-way through a busy day that we are going to lose our water tonight is pretty unreasonable on the council's side.
''Unless it was a major breakage of a pipe, then I could accept it but if it's purely because they have under-estimated the usage I think it's pretty slack."