Scottish Water update after burst pipe hits water supplies to four Fife towns

The issue forced the closure of seven schools on Monday, but repairs have been completed, and tankers have been deployed to speed up the recovery of the network. The burst pipe impacted on people in Buckhaven, Star, Markinch and Methil.

Scottish Water’s teams worked throughout the night to fix the 12-inch strategic water main, but restoring supplies was challenging as Scottish Fire and Rescue was also tackling a large fire at a former nightclub in Methil which caused significant impact on the network and storage tanks, affecting 8900 properties.

A Scottish Water spokesperson said: “Most customers are now back in supply, but a secondary burst caused further demand on the network at Kennoway Road in Windygates, and we are arranging for repairs to be carried out.

“We would like to apologise to those customers impacted in the Methil, Buckhaven and surrounding areas, and for the delays in restoring services. We had to undertake a slow recharge of this water main to minimise the risk of further bursts and to avoid causing discolouration of water supplies.”

Water will continue to be tankered into the network to restore and maintain water supplies until the network fully recovers.

The spokesman added: “We continue to support customers who have contacted us and requested deliveries of bottled water, and we will continue to work through these requests but there may be delays due to the volume of requests.”

The schools which were forced to close because of a lack of water should return to normal this morning (Tuesday).