Government regulations require daily recording of water use at the point it is taken under a permit.
Landowners taking more than 20 litres per second were required to install a meter by November 10 last year and provide data recorded on the meter to the Otago Regional Council by July 1 this year.
It affects mostly owners who irrigate their land. Council regional services director Jeff Donaldson said it was initially thought 22% of landowners who had consent to take more than 20 litres per second had not made progress towards meeting the water-metering deadlines. But follow-ups had found many had made progress but had not notified the council.
However, with winter approaching, the timeframe for installing meters was decreasing as many of the remaining ones were in remote locations.
It now appeared 16% had installed measuring equipment, with 7% in the process of installing the equipment or waiting for verification.
Delays in installing open channel flow measurement systems were cited by
the majority of the 45% of consent holders who had provided information on their progress, applied for an exemption or had supplied data logger records but no documentation.
The delay was due to a shortage of installers and qualified hydrologists to carry out the necessary verification following installation, he said.
''There is a lot of delay in verification, as there is not a lot of expertise in this area in Otago any more.''
The regional council was using its own staff to assist where it could, Mr Donaldson said.
The remaining consents were in the process of ''surrendering'' their takes or they had lapsed, so measuring was not required.
More were being surrendered now, due to the requirement to install meters.
''They're often ones where there is no water now, old mining races.''
