Scottish Water Winter Response

“Severe weather always brings challenges for customers and our employees. Minimising disruption for our customers is a priority for all of us. Our teams are working around the clock in some very difficult conditions. ”

Kevin Roy
Customer Service General Manager, Scottish Water

Scottish Water teams are responding to reduce the impact of winter weather and sustained subzero temperatures on water and waste water services.

The current conditions have seen an increase in the number of customers contacting our advisors reporting frozen pipes which cause interruption to their domestic water supply.

Kevin Roy, Customer Service General Manager, said: “There has been a marked increase in the number of issues on our networks. We have witnessed a 100% increase in the volume of bursts repaired, several instances of valves freezing, and a large waste water main burst in Renfrewshire. 

“Our Customer Engagement Centre had around 8,000 contacts from customers on Wednesday and a large volume of those contacts were reports of frozen private pipes. We continue to provide additional help to those customers including rapid response support to those on our priority services register.

“Severe weather always brings challenges for customers and our employees. Minimising disruption for our customers is a priority for all of us. Our teams are working around the clock in some very difficult conditions. I’d like to thank customers who have been affected for their understanding and patience and our teams for their efforts.

“As we continue to monitor the severe cold weather, we are planning for the eventuality that we may need to additionally support our customers, for example, by delivering bottled water as a temporary alternative to their normal tap supply. Currently we have around 250 employees registered to volunteer to help distribute those packs.”

Scottish Water is in liaison with a number of other agencies and organisations working collectively to ensure resilience in communities during the winter.