He said in reality, even if the reservoir had been operating it was unlikely to have made any difference to the situation.
"We hold half of the water back for emergency use and firefighting capacity, so half of the water would have been used in three hours. We would still have had to go to significant restrictions."
A second reservoir in Taradale was installed last year to increase water storage as well as cater for future urban development within Napier.
The reservoir holds 9.2 million litres and is located on the same site as the existing Taradale Reservoir above Tironui Drive (which has a similar capacity) and will hook directly into the water supply network.
The bulk of Napier city is supplied through the council's Enfield Rd reservoir system, which includes the Taradale Reservoir. Combined, the top water levels of the two reservoirs have a combined capacity of 20,240cu m.
The restrictions were eased to Level 2 on Tuesday, after a drop in public water usage.
Mr Kingsford added that Level 2 restrictions were still in place and said with a hot weekend forecast, it would be interesting to see how people responded.
"Our water monitoring system shows that Napier residents are heeding the call – we've gone from water usage of over 550 litres per person per day in the week to December 3rd, to just over 400 litres per person per day so far this week. That's over 9 million litres a day in savings, which makes an extraordinary difference – we're really grateful for that."
A water conservation campaign, communicating a series of helpful tips for both indoor and outdoor water use, began on Monday and would continue until March 2018.
NCC's parks and reserves team has also pared back its watering of public gardens, lawns, sports grounds and reserves.
"We know we are part of the solution and our staff have all been briefed on doing their bit, both at home and at work, to help conserve water."
All the Marine Parade fountains used recycled water with top-ups from town supply to mitigate the loss of water from evaporation.
"We're reducing the loss by evaporation by setting timers to have the fountains operating from 10am until 10pm, instead of their usual operating hours of 6am until midnight. Our staff will also be keeping an eye on wind and turning the fountains off on blustery days, to save water."
McLean Park and Nelson Park are irrigated by sprinklers, which would run on reduced hours.
However, some additional essential watering is set to take place in coming days.
The Carols by Candlelight event at the Botanical Gardens, on Sunday, December 17, posed a fire risk if the lawns are not well watered.
Level 2 restrictions require any outdoor watering to take place between 6am and 8am, and 7pm and 9pm, on alternate days only.