| Initially, it appeared affected customers could be entitled to a total of £400,000 in compensation, with the water company’s own code of practice stating a minimum £20 was payable if supplies were disrupted for more than 12 hours.
As many as 10,000 customers were left without water from 9am on Monday until lunchtime yesterday.
However, Scottish Water today made it clear the compensation did not apply where the disruption was to a strategic water main.
Such bursts were covered by different criteria which, according to the company, would enable it to avoid paying compensation by a matter of minutes.
A spokesman said the company it has 48 hours to restore supplies where a strategic main is fractured. It also has up to eight hours to supply an alternative source of water.
Scottish Water says it was notified of the problem at 9.30am and claimed to have a static water tank in the affected area by around 5pm, beating the compensation deadline by half-an-hour.
It also managed to supply bottled water to special-needs customers within the necessary time frame to avoid payouts.
Some Dundee people, however, complained it took 12 hours for the company to provide water tankers. Scottish Water said it would consider all claims on a case-by-case basis.
The company also made it clear the onus for claiming compensation lies with the customers. The company will not make payments unless a claim is lodged.
The burst, understood to have been caused by a contractor working on a Dundee City Council job in a field north of Longhaugh Road, mainly affected properties in the Fintry (North), Fintry (South), Mid Craigie/Linlathen, Mill of Mains, Stobswell, Whitfield(North), Whitfield (South) areas of northern and central Dundee.
They were left without water for 15 to 16 hours, with the last customers reconnected around lunchtime.
Scottish Water said it is standard procedure for it to seek recovery of its costs when someone else has caused an accident. The company claims, in this instance, to have warned the council’s contractor about the location of the pipe before the burst occurred.
Investigations into the cause of the burst will continue over the next fortnight and a meeting with the council will take place during that time.
Dundee City Council was asked to confirm that the contractor had indemnity insurance in place in case of burst pipes and also whether or not the contractor would be allowed to remain on the local authority’s approved list should it emerge there was an element of carelessness in the work.
A council spokesman said, “We will be meeting with Scottish Water to discuss the issues and circumstances surrounding the incident. We believe Scottish Water are meeting with the contractors separately.
“We are not prepared to speculate on hypothetical situations potentially arising from the meeting.”
And Scottish Water has rejected allegations it could have restored supply to the 10,000 people in Dundee hit by the burst main much sooner if it had deployed its most experienced men, writes Bryan Kay.
An insider has claimed maintenance men in Tayside and Fife, with four decades of experience fixing leaks between them, could have been deployed to the site and repaired the damage quicker than the 15 to 16 hours it eventually took sub-contractors.
The source said, “I would ask why did they get contractors out before their own employees who have considerable experience working with pipes and leakages.
“This brutally exposed the job cuts over the years because their own workers are down to bare bones. Why should they call upon contractors when they have their own boys on standby? The experienced boys could have had the job done a lot quicker.
“When you arrive on the job, the first thing you do is look at the water main. You get the size of the fitting you need to fix the job — there are many different sizes and pipes — then you close off the pipe.
“You’ve got to get your sizes so you can order the parts while you’re digging. These contractors start digging first then order later. It seems to me there was nobody on site who managed the job properly.”
But a spokeswoman for Scottish Water said the personnel sent to the scene did exactly what was required, and were guided by water board project managers.
She said, “I have been speaking with our project managers and we refute any claims the job was not done properly or could have been done any quicker.
“We had emergency plans in place and the people on the ground did exactly what was needed. This is not a reflection on their experience. We used who we had available.” |
