Council consents manager Malcolm Miller said irrigators were also required to monitor, and report their takes to council, who would monitor river flows, provide advice on flow levels, and advise when water extraction must stop.
IrrigationNZ CEO Andrew Curtis said any public concern about irrigators being able to take water was unfounded because of the differences between the restrictions.
Public restrictions were about "purely stopping people over utilising the system", while irrigation bans was a "different scenario, linked to environmental parameters".
Bans are imposed by the regional council if the 35 streams and rivers regularly gauged for summer flows drop to pre-set low-flow limits, and affect irrigators if the water body is linked to their consent.
During a ban, consent holders are not able to take water for crops or pasture, but are able to take water for domestic and stock supply.
Mr Curtis said bans became challenging for some enterprises who needed constant use of water, he said, as "if you don't use water at a certain time, it can mean you lose a crop".
With a drought on the horizon, "that's when the pressure comes on, and all the angst comes out".
While the number of irrigation bans in Hawke's Bay have increased, irrigators are still able to take water: there are a possible total of 60 irrigation bans as each of the rivers and streams monitored by the council can have multiple ban levels.
Mr Miller said as a large part of the Heretaunga Plains was not considered to directly affect surface flows, "so irrigation and other takes from this groundwater are not required to stop taking when other surface takes or groundwater takes are required to stop taking".
There would also be no conditions of consent requiring them to cease.
Complaints about irrigators are often fielded by the council's Pollution Hotline. Over the past two summers, the most common was about irrigators "watering" roads.
While council water information services manager Mark Heaney said it was a waste to "squirt water on the road", there were no regulations for where irrigators could, or could not water.
He advised irrigators should still look to conserve water where possible, and to "treat the water with the respect it deserves as a valuable resource".