At Tipsy Tails restaurant on the main stretch of Alma in southeastern New Brunswick, servers are pouring soda straight from the can because they can't use their fountain machine.

Server Rebecca Chown says tourists who visit the village are taken by surprise when they’re greeted by the boil-water order that was imposed after the August long weekend -- the busiest weekend for the village.

On a single busy summer's day, Alma can see thousands of tourists pour into the village,including those visiting Fundy National Park just next door.

“For people who don't know anything about it and come in and see boil order and then they're sort of shocked so we have to explain a lot of that to everyone and I think it’s a little bit surprising to see that the whole village is on a boil order,” said Chown.

Alma Mayor Kristin Shortt says that conversation is frustrating to have - because she says while there's no health risk here - the phrase 'boil-water order' does have a negative connotation.

“We'd like to present a safe environment here and just a little bit of a boil order, that puts a dent into that,” she said.

The problem stems from a system not designed to handle the kind of use that it's now getting - the village itself only has a population of a little more than a 200, but it now has to accommodate thousands.

“We are currently working with our engineers to find a secondary source and to bring another water supply online,” Shortt said. “But, in the meantime, we have this struggle with having to manipulate a residential well even though there’s lot of water, but it’s an issue of over pumping.”

As for when the boil order might be lifted, officials are hoping for this weekend as Shortt says they have a meeting with the Department of Health late this week.

A long-term fix is still needed to deal with an issue that will continue to trouble the town as long as the tourists keep coming in such high numbers.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Lyall.