"It is what it is, we've all got to do our part. It's scary that they're not more on top of it especially when we've also got chlorination in our water and testing going on. You'd think it would have been more advance warning so it wasn't so dire."
Hairdresser Daniel Franklin said he needed water every day for his job, so if the city did run out of water this would impact business.
"You can't work, it would close. We need [water] to wash the colours off, everything like that," he said. "We won't be working if that's what happens."
Napier ratepayer Susie Mason said the situation was concerning, but she was not sure how much it would impact her.
"I guess we all need a wake-up call sometimes, and this is it. We just need to suck it up and hopefully they'll learn something. I will [conserve water] if that's the situation at the moment."
New Napier resident Sumit Prashar said he thought a water shortage was not good for anybody, and to preserve water people's use should be controlled.
Some other residents complained of brown water coming from their taps. It is unknown how is this related to yesterday's announcement.