Scottish Water engineers have been out and about again, as they continue to deal with the effects of the weather.
The fire and rescue service was kept busy in Tayside, as the big freeze gave way to the big flood for dozens of households in the region.
In Fife, most of the calls have related to burst pipes, with some 14,000 calls being recorded across Scotland in the space of three days over Christmas.
Communities in the KY15 area, including people in Rathillet, Foodieash, Lindores and Kilmany, contacted Scottish Water on Tuesday after suffering loss of water supply, low pressure and discoloured water.
No burst was found by engineers working in the area but the problems were being investigated throughout the day.
A Scottish Water spokesperson said on Tuesday that most customers’ water should have been restored, but added some may experience some discolouration to their supply.
They said, “This discolouration is harmless and will gradually disappear as the system returns to normal.
“We would hope to have supplies fully restored as quickly as possible.”
Meanwhile, it was a similar story in Brock Street and the surrounding areas of North Queensferry, with customers reporting loss of supply, problems with pressure and discolouration.
Bottled water was made available for anyone affected from 1pm onwards at the nearby railway station and church, while Scottish Water said it hoped to have supplies in the area restored to normal as soon as possible.Dedicated fire enginePeter Farrer, Scottish Water’s customer service delivery director, said, “We are aware that we may be taking longer to answer some calls or respond to appeals for help. For this we apologise and thank our customers for their patience as we work to deal with all these issues.
“Our team know it’s a 24/7 business and all our staff know how important it is for customers to be able to get through to us when they call. It may, however, take longer to answer calls during such extreme conditions, when our customer helpline is very busy. We would ask customers to remain patient with us during such times.”
He added, “Our customer helpline in Edinburgh and our back-up call centre, together with our field teams, are working at full capacity. Many of our calls are from households affected by frozen pipes or bursts in their homes.
“When they call with an internal problem, we offer them advice on how to get a plumber or helpful hints on our dedicated webpage.”
In Tayside the fire brigade went as far as putting a designated engine on the road to deal with flooding-related calls, but also reminded residents that in most cases their first port of call should be a plumber.
Tayside Fire and Rescue first received reports of problems on Monday morning when the thaw started to reveal the number of pipes that had not survived the cold snap intact.
Watch manager Bruce Farquharson said crews had attended 36 serious incidents in Tayside in 24 hours and given advice to a further 25 residents.
He said, “What we are asking people to do in the first instance is contact a plumber but if it is affecting the electrics in a house, then we will respond as there is a risk of fire.
“We have had quite a severe freeze and now we are having a slight thaw and that is when the burst pipes become evident.”
He added, “The advice we are giving to people is keep your houses warm and insulated to protect pipes from freezing. You should also know where the stop-cock so if there is a burst you can turn it off quickly.”