“No-one took any attempt to inform us,” local resident James Tongue said. “We just got out of bed and we had no water.”

Mr Tongue said his main concern rested not with the lack of water but the possible consequences of having no water.

“It wasn’t good for a 43 degree day. What would have happened if there had been a fire? We would have been helpless.”

However, Murrumbidgee Shire Council general manager Paul Goodsall said at no stage was there any danger to residents.

“To have put a message over the radio would have been to give a false impression to the community of a major problem, which there wasn’t,” Mr Goodsall.

“This is the first time I’ve been aware of anyone in the community having no water. We switched the bore over immediately to the back-up bore and, while there was very little pressure, there was still water there.

“No-one saw the need to put a notice out to the community. If there had been a major problem we would have had guys out there doing letter drops.”