E. Coli has been detected in the water supply of Wairarapa town Martinborough.

The South Wairarapa District Council are advising all water users to boil their water for drinking, food preparation, and brushing their teeth.

The council says although the level of the bacteria detected is very low, the water-boiling notice comes from consultation with Regional Public Health.

The council is clearing pipelines of water and carrying our further investigations to identify the source of contamination.

Mayor Viv Napier told Larry Williams that they have been checking water quality bi-weekly after a similar issue in February. 

"There is positive in E. Coli that was notified yesterday afternoon," she says, with two readings showing up during the normal testing process. 

After the February scare, a report found that there were issues in the local water system.

Napier says that they are still looking into the issue, but an issue is that there is manganese in the water which means they cannot chlorinate. 

"We do have UV treatment at the source of the bore, but the report said that the UV was not working for a level of 12 hours and they put that down as the possible cause of the E. Coli coming into the system." 

She believes they will discuss chlorinating the water, but that locals may be resistant towards that change.