Consumers taking more water than they are entitled to could find themselves in hot water with the Waitaki District Council.
The council has been inspecting some rural water schemes after consumers ran out of water and found some people were taking more than they should.
Schemes where problems have been found are Hampden-Moeraki, Awamoko and Enfield, but others may also be inspected if their rural water scheme committees detect problems.
Consumers on rural water schemes get allocated units of water which are controlled by restrictors on the reticulation feeding their water tanks.
However, some bypass or change the restrictors and get more water than they are entitled to or pay for.
Water and waste water manager Martin Pacey said that affected other consumers, who had run out of water, leading to water restrictions being imposed.
Some of the problems were due to leaks in the reticulation, but most were caused by people illegally taking extra water.
Assets committee chairman Alistair Mavor said it was up to water scheme committees to make consumers aware of the problem and effects.
If people took more than their fair share, others would miss out, he said.
Mr Pacey said the council was also planning a publicity campaign.
One of the problems was that people may not be aware, if they had recently bought a property, that their water take was illegal.
They may have been getting that water for years, he said.
A blatant illegal connection was easy to detect - particularly when people bypassed restrictors - but others may not be so obvious, Mr Pacey said.
