Homes left with no water for three days

SEVERAL homes were left without water for almost three days after pressure in the pipes dropped following tram works.

Work to move water mains on Leith Walk left residents in one block unable to wash or make a cup of tea between Wednesday morning and Friday evening.

A lack of pressure was blamed for the problem, with those in ground-floor properties unaffected.

Caroline Brown, 35, said: "The disruption has been bad enough, but my flat had no water for almost three days.

"They were changing over the water mains, but we had no prior warning that this work was going to take place.

"The water was cut off on Wednesday morning and was back on for a couple of hours on Thursday morning with very low pressure. It wasn't even enough to run our central heating.

"I have three children under the age of seven and did no laundry in three days. That might sound trivial, but there is a lot of washing generated by three children.

"They went to school for two days without washing properly."

Mrs Brown said she and her sons, Lochlin, 6, Orrin, 5, and Noah, 2, were brought drinking water, but with no family nearby to rely on, she felt helpless.

She added: "There seems to have been a complete breakdown in communication, as Scottish Water and TIE said they just found out about the problem on Friday, but it had been reported several times."

She said residents have also been assured an investigation was under way as to why they were not informed of the work before it was carried out.

Neighbour John Gibson said he spent hours trying to contact tram works contractors to get some help, but had to get environmental health officers involved to get anyone in to fix the problem.

He said: "Myself and a couple of my neighbours got as many water containers as we could find and filled them from a local shop for the families in my block with children and the elderly.

"During this whole situation, nobody within the block had been informed that work would be taking place in connection with our water supply."

The supply was reinstated by 4.30pm on Friday, after being transferred back to the existing main.

A Scottish Water spokesman said: "Our engineers, working with the Edinburgh Trams Project, are attending to low-pressure problems in Leith Walk.

"The issue, which has affected only a small number of properties, followed mains diversion work on behalf of the trams project.

"The network has since been redistributed and affected customers returned to full supply. It will be necessary to investigate this matter further."