The details surrounding the incident are still not known, however it is thought the boy was pulled from the Waikoko Lake, in the gardens at the front of the showgrounds.
This has sparked a debate about the safety of public waterways - Waikoko Lake varies in depth from half a metre to 4m, is publicly accessible, but is not fenced.
Water Safety NZ chief executive Jonty Mills said all waterways posed a potential hazard, particularly to children, and the only foolproof way of keeping them safe was constant supervision.
"Local authorities have a responsibility to ensure public safety, however we all have some responsibility to watch out for each other, particularly where children are involved," he said.
Potential hazards needed to be identified, but he said it was not realistic to expect every waterway in the country to be fully fenced.
"So we all need to be extra vigilant around water, particularly where kids are involved."
Although Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said the district council did not have any jurisdiction over the showgrounds environment, he felt there was a limit to the safety measures which could be implemented around waterways.
"It would be unrealistic to fence all our waterways, our lakes, our rivers," he said. "There is a natural danger next to waterways and parents need to be constantly vigilant about that."
Showgrounds general manager Brent Linn has said although the incident was "tragic", they had to balance "providing public access to the showgrounds and relying on people to self-manage that risk".
Mr Linn said he was not aware of any similar incidents happening at the showgrounds before.
There had been no scheduled public events at the showgrounds on Sunday afternoon - the weekly Farmers' Market at the showgrounds had finished well before the incident.
