Call for inquiry into 'catastrophic failure' which left 6,000 homes and businesses in Berwickshire without water
Last updated 29th Aug 2025
There's a call for a review of Scottish Water's handling of what's being described as a catastrophic failure of a pipe at Rawburn Water Treatment Works which left around 6,000 homes and businesses in Berwickshire without running water.
Around 200 properties were still waiting to be reconnected to the network last night (Friday) - four days after the fault was first flagged.
But the water company has defended its response - pointing out staff have worked round-the-clock to reconnect communities.
A spokesperson said: "Since detecting damage at Rawburn Water Treatment Works near Duns, Scottish Water has had teams working hard to restore supplies across several towns, villages and rural areas.
"Temporary mitigation measures, including three overland water supply pipes, were put in place to help supplies return as quickly as possible.
"More than 20 tankers were deployed to help transfer additional water supply to areas – around 8 million litres so far - a move which helped prevent around 4,000 further properties being impacted and which has helped restore supply more quickly to most properties."
The medical centre in Coldstream was among the properties affected on Friday, but supplies were restored the same day, following intervention from local MP John Lamont.
He has been critical of Scottish Water's lack of communication and speed at getting help to those most in need.
In a post on his Facebook page, Mr Lamont said: "I've made it absolutely clear to Scottish Water that this is totally unacceptable. It is a disaster and they need to get it sorted out as soon as possible."
Questions have been raised over how soon Scottish Water knew about the issue, which they say was detected on Tuesday afternoon, with reports of "endless tankers taking water into Rawburn" last week, despite there being a reservoir there.
The full impact of the fault is still to be assessed, with a number of businesses forced to close due to the outage and many others struggling to shower, brush their teeth or flush their toilets.
Commenting on the situation, one resident said: "There should be an inquiry after this, it's been diabolical.
"Started with a problem for 270 houses and in fixing that they took out virtually all of Berwickshire.
"The question needs asked about the age and condition of the system and why it's caused so many problems; doesn't seem like it's fit for purpose."
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Scottish Water says all customers on its Priority Services Register have been contacted, and staff are on hand to deliver bottled water.
A warning to people not to drink their tap water was lifted earlier in the week.
Any customers experiencing discoloured water or "bits" in their tap water when it does come back on are being advised to run their cold kitchen tap at a reduced pressure until it runs clear.
A bottled water collection point opposite the High School in Duns was due to reopen at 8am on Saturday.
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John Griffen, Water Operations General Manager at Scottish Water, said: “We are pleased to have restored normal supplies for the vast majority of the affected properties.
“This has been one of the biggest challenges we have ever had on our network in the area.
“A large number of staff, including many who volunteered from their normal day jobs, have been out in force across the Borders to resolve the issue and help minimise the impact on customers. Many helped out at a number of bottled water stations and helped deliver water to more rural areas of customers on the Priority Register.
”We would again like to apologise to all of our customers who were impacted, we really do appreciate how frustrating a loss of water supply is, and we have worked night and day to get customers’ taps flowing as soon as possible.”
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