Seventy-five Norsewood households are about to get a boil-your-water notice from the Tararua District Council but council is reassuring residents there's no problem with their supply, it's simply a precautionary measure.
"We'll send a letter explaining the background to the notice, which is as a result of inquiries into the Havelock North water crisis," Dave Watson, council's utilities manager, said.
"We're taking this precaution because households in Norsewood have dual water supply, from council and their roof and we don't know what is in individual spouting and other water sources.
"Contamination could happen at any time and as a council we are being proactive."
Mr Watson said the council has never had a water quality problem in Norsewood and didn't believe one was likely to occur. But the council must own the safety of water supply to households, even down to tanker-supplied water, he told councillors in a special briefing on Wednesday.
As a result of the Havelock North water crisis, local authorities are now having to follow 10 key recommendations included in the stage 2 report, including tighter controls of supply, training of staff and emergency response plans and boil water documentation.
"Everybody has to front up," Mr Watson said.
"And it's in Norsewood where council has the biggest risk. This risk is really high for council. We are meeting bacteria test compliance on all our network except for Norsewood.