The Greater Wellington Regional Council said a hold up in water restrictions for the region being put in place is down to the Wellington City Council.
Just after an entire outdoor water ban was put in place, it was revealed the region was nearing a water crisis and had to take water from rivers.
Greater Regional Wellington's Chris Laidlow said they wanted to start warning people of restrictions around February 18 in order to see demand for water come down.
He said Wellington City Council had to have a meeting to pass a resolution to introduce restrictions, and that could not be done until March 7.
"At that time, Hutt City Council, Upper Hutt City Council and Porirua City Council were ready to go with a sprinkler ban.
"We had a bit of a delay between when we would have liked to have seen a sprinkler ban imposed, and when it actually was imposed."
Mr Laidlow said the regional council wanted to make sure all councils could impose the ban before it took it to the public.