Tralee is to review its water services after an embarrassing breakdown in supply during this year's Rose of Tralee festival.
The "outage" which became apparent on the afternoon of the final selection threatened to leave the international festival without water for showers or catering.
However, a meeting of the Tralee Town Council heard new procedures would be put in place to deal with any such event in future.
Eight fire tenders relaying between the nearby village of Blennerville and Tralee pumped up to 40,000 gallons of water into the Brandon Hotel where the Roses were staying.
The festival headquarters, the Dome, and a nearby hospital were also supplied by fire tender.
The break in one of the mains pipes 12ft underground left thousands without water in Tralee town centre for up to 17 hours on Tuesday.
It meant that businesses such as the water attraction The Aquadome, one of the town's leading tourist attractions, had to close on one of the busiest days of the year.
Some premises in Tralee have no storage tanks and depend entirely on continuous incoming supply, Mr Willie Wixted, Tralee town manager, said at the meeting of the council on Monday night.
The accepted norm was that premises should have one-day storage, but there had been a departure from this in recent years. "It's unacceptable a premises runs out the minute a break occurs," Mr Wixted said.
He said the council was now to look at storage in a planning context with a view to ensuring that premises have at least some storage.
Mr John Breen, town clerk, said huge crowds had gathered in the town for the festival. It was the busiest day of the year. Water was already being used at a great rate, and this had added to the impact of the break.
The council is also to examine ways of communicating more effectively with the public if and when a break occurs.