Seven Otago landowners face not being able to take water for irrigation this season after failing to comply with water metering regulations.
The Otago Regional Council issued warnings to 55 consent holders who had not contacted it to confirm they had installed water measuring equipment.
New resource management regulations came into force in 2010 requiring daily recording of water use at the point of take under a consent for takes of more than 20 litres per second.
Council director environmental monitoring and operations Jeff Donaldson said the seven landowners had been issued with abatement notices instructing them to cease taking water and giving them four months to rectify the situation.
''If they take water [despite the notice] they will be heading for prosecution,'' Mr Donaldson said.
Those landowners had already received letters from the council notifying them of the requirements. Some of the landowners had contacted the council since the notices were issued.
Of the 55 landowners contacted by the council, 34 had received official warning letters giving them four months to fix the situation. An abatement notice would be issued if they had not complied by then.
The council was also expecting further issues as an additional requirement to provide the council with the data from the water meters came into effect on Thursday, he said.
''There will be problems if people can't furnish us with the data.''
If the landowners continued to fail to meet the requirements, further legal action would be considered, he said.
There was a small percentage of water takes which had not been used for more than five years and could have lapsed or needed to be cancelled.
