Hastings District Council has admitted failings following the government inquiry into the contamination of Havelock North's water supply last year but says it is clear the council did not cause the contamination.
Havelock North Water Inquiry panel chair Lyn Stevens QC today said a higher standard of care should have been in place to prevent thousands of people falling ill from a bacterial infection in the suburb's drinking water.
He listed the failings of all agencies charged with supplying safe drinking water and said had it not been for a lack of coordination and strained relationship between Hawke's Bay Regional Council and Hastings District Council "a different outcome may have occurred".
Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule said the inquiry's findings indicated a "very strong probability" the outbreak was caused by contaminated surface water from a pond close to a council bore that infiltrated underground water considered naturally protected from surface water.
Hastings District Council chief executive Ross McLeod said the council acknowledged deficiencies in its water-supply operations.