Browned off

Dunedin resident John Sheppard was among many worrying about the contamination of the city's drinking water yesterday.

Mr Sheppard, a property owner and businessman who lives in North Dunedin, first noticed problems when his washing machine began filling with brown water on Monday afternoon.

By yesterday, the water emerged brown-tinged and swirling with sediment.

''I went to get a drink of water and, gee, I wouldn't drink it. It was bad,'' he said.

The council responded yesterday morning by rolling out a fleet of water tankers, as it raced to rectify the problem.

Mr Sheppard said it was ''fairly serious stuff''.