Compensation plea after water outage in Berwickshire
Only around 15% of properties affected have submitted a claim...
Last updated 11th Sep 2025
Investigations are continuing into a fault which left around 6,000 homes and businesses in Berwickshire without water last month.
Scottish Water is describing the incident as "one of the biggest and most challenging" it has ever had to respond to in the Borders.
It shut down Rawburn treatment works, near Longformacus, to allow emergency repairs to be carried out; with more than 20 tankers, 100 additional staff and specialist equipment from Aberdeen and Glasgow drafted in to help.
The areas affected included Duns, Eccles, Coldingham, Chirnside, Paxton, Coldstream, Burnmouth, Lamberton, Drone Hill, Birgham, Whitsome, Swinton and Leitholm.
A do not drink tap water warning was issued to around 300 properties as a precaution and more than 100,000 bottles of water were distributed to customers until their supplies were restored.
However, this week it's emerged, only around 900 households have applied to Scottish Water for compensation.
The water company has written a letter of apology to all affected properties - and is encouraging those who haven't already to contact them to submit a claim, for the inconvenience.
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John Griffen, Scottish Water’s Water Operations General Manager, said: “We have started a full and thorough investigation into the cause of this incident, and will carry out an internal review of our response, to identify improvements for the future and learn from what happened.
“Scottish Water’s customers will always be our top priority and we fully appreciate the inconvenience this incident caused and thank them again for their patience and understanding."
He added: "Incidents of this scale and duration are rare and highlight how reliable our normal service is. The company is owned by its customers and we will keep listening, learning, and improving for our customers.”
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