A Tauranga resident is shocked at Tauranga City Council's lack of action as water continues to pour from a leaking water main at the bottom of his driveway.

Dean Barr-Smith says the water main has been leaking for the last three weeks and nothing has been done despite numerous calls to council.

The leaking watermain at the bottom of the driveway outside Fraser Street. Photo: Supplied.

'It happened three weeks ago and they [council] must have been contacted about six times from us and about half a dozen times from our neighbours.

'It's pouring out. I don't know how many cubic metres would have poured out, but it's a lot.”

The white water main, located at the bottom of his driveway on Fraser Street, has been pouring water straight out on to the roadside and down the drain.

Dave does not believe council has moved swiftly enough, considering the hot dry summer the city has faced.

'We have rung the council numerous times and they say ‘gee that's terrible we must do something about it'.”

'Considering there's a drought and everybody is told to conserve water and what do they do?”

Tauranga City Council communications advisor Marcel Currin says a lot of difficult work has been put into trying to fix the leak since first being alerted to it on February 25.

'We've been trying to get the problem fixed without resorting to a major water shutdown for what is a relatively minor leak.”

The leak seems to be coming from an old cross connection, but when contractors excavated at the location shown on archive plans, it was not there.

'So the old plans aren't much use and we're reluctant to dig up a large section of road to find the source of the problem.”

Marcel says unfortunately the next step is going to require a water shutdown scheduled for next Thursday, lasting up to six hours for a large area surrounding the Fraser street address.

'Affected properties will be notified in advance and during the shutdown we'll be installing a new valve further up the line. This won't stop the leak but it will enable future repairs to take place without disrupting the water supply any further.”