News / Taps flow again after three day drought
RUNNING water has been temporarily restored to a remote Shetland hamlet three days after taps ran dry.
Scottish Water’s local management admitted that they were at a loss as to why the four households in Lunning had lost their water supply for so long.
Engineers were first out on Saturday night after around 40 households in Vidlin and the South Nesting community of Brettabister had lost their water supplies.
By Sunday night supplies were restored to most customers apart from those in Lunning, east of Vidlin.
On Monday, Scottish Water gave the all clear saying they had a “challenging” weekend after a number of air valves, susceptible to failure in cold weather, malfunctioned.
However water supplies to Lunning had still not been restored despite assurances to the contrary by the customer care helpline.
On Monday night engineers returned to dig up the moor to locate additional leaks in the water mains.
The next day Scottish Water admitted the leak was almost impossible to find as there was no water in the mains.
By Tuesday night, 72 hours after the loss of service, engineers had installed a temporary tank from where water is being pumped to the affected households while engineers continue trying to reconnect the hamlet to the mains supply.
Lunning resident Janet Ainsworth said she had nothing but praise for the “blokes at grassroots” who have been out for days in driving rain in difficult terrain to locate the faults.
But she was highly critical of Scottish Water management who, she said, had failed to communicate the problems to customers affected by the lengthy outage.
“Having to live without tap water for three days has been very difficult for us. Yes, bottled drinking water was supplied but I have difficulties carrying things, so I rely on my husband to carry the water for me.
“Their communication was completely ineffective. For example, the helpdesk never told me that they had a registry so that people with a medical condition could get additional support.
“I feel that Scottish Water management do not understand the circumstances of living on an island, they have no notion of that.”
A Scottish Water spokesman said on Wednesday: “Unfortunately, after resolving this first issue and reconnecting the majority of customers, it emerged that four properties at Lunning remained without water.
“Bottled water was made available but due to the distance and topography between our water pumping station and the four properties it has taken longer than we would have hoped to identify the cause of this problem.
“We appreciate the frustration experienced by customers in the four properties and our team on site have been working to update them on the work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
“We apologise for the inconvenience caused and our grateful to customers for their patience.”
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