People in two coastal Otago towns are furious over the length of time it took authorities to warn them about toxic levels of lead in their water.
Yesterday afternoon, residents of Karitāne and Waikouaiti were told to stop using their tap water for drinking, cooking or to prepare food with.
Dunedin City Council and Southern DHB are admitting the poisoned water was identified as long ago as 18 December.
The council says that test result got lost in an email inbox with nobody picking it up until some point after the New Year - but even then the public weren't warned.
Anan Zaki filed this report.
