It comes after the town’s water alert was changed from temporary to permanent.

Pelican Sands Scamander owner Maureen Gill took aim at the positioning of the water treatment plant and its proximity to floodplain. 

But TasWater’s department manager of product quality Lance Stapleton says the organisation has been more than frank of the matter, and TasWater would continue to invest in tests to ensure the water is drinkable by early next year. 

Mr Stapleton said that TasWater would invest further in the plant if required. 

“We’re pretty confident we can keep the plant where it is and if we need to do some more work in terms of shoring it up and bunding it for floods we can do that. “

Ms Gill said the community sentiment had been that the current water treatment plant was not fit for purpose.

“People come on holidays in Australia, they expect to be able to drink the water,” she said. 

“We’ve chosen to provide bottled water for our guests which is an added expense.”

But Mr Stapleton explained that more than one million had been spent on the plant in the last year alone. 

He said that the permanent boil water notice had been placed as undue stress occurred on the network of the plants during periods of peak demand, causing the water to be bypassed away from the plant. 

He said residents would receive a letter about the next stages of works due to commence in the next 6-8 weeks. 

Ms Gill said she feared the permanent boil water alert would redirect visitors to other East Coast towns.

Scamander Beach Hotel owner Brian Forsyth said he’d been withholding water payments to TasWater until they fix the problem. 

According to TasWater’s 2014-15 annual report, 26 towns were on long term boil water notices or public health alerts in the previous financial year, with a target of 20 by the end of the 14-15 financial year. 

Break O'Day Mick Tucker said the temporary alert had been virtually permanent for quite some years, and he confident TasWater was working to rectify the problem as soon as possible. 

Mouth Cafe co-owner Nicholas Dunne said he’d been struck with additional costs in paying for fresh water.