An Edinburgh mum is outraged after her building was left without water for over 24 hours.
Residents of Nisbet Court, a high-rise block of flats in Restalrig, discovered on Saturday, July 1, there was no running water coming from the taps.
Fuming Penella Jane Scott, 29, told Edinburgh Live how she was unable to wash her two children over the weekend. It was made even worse as they went to a colour bomb festival on Saturday afternoon.
Panella said: "It's been a nightmare. It fell on the worst weekend as my nine-year-old daughter, Bella, and my partner were at colour bomb festival yesterday and obviously covered in powder paint. They haven't been able to shower or wash because we have no water.
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"My daughter is prone to eczema and her skin has been so irritated and sore because she's unable to wash."
At around 6pm on Sunday (July 2), the mum-of-two said that power was intermittent through the night for half of the 15-storey block, while the water was still off.
She explained: "At around 4pm on Saturday, I noticed we had no running water at all, none in the bathroom or kitchen, that's roughly when the posts on our Nisbet Court Facebook page came flooding in.
"The neighbours on the other side of the block 4/5/6 also complained of no electricity or water. I am on 1/2/3 side.
"Since then it's been a constant battle. We are now 26 and a half hours in. The generator was changed at about 12am last night (Saturday).
"We had no water but we had electricity, my partner was halfway through a shower when the water went off again, by then the guys dealing with it had already left. So nothing again till this morning."
Panella added: "Then at about 8am on Sunday, the water came back for the building, but no electricity for block 4/5/6. At around 10.30pm, the water went off again. Since then we have had no water at all. Scottish Power are now digging underground thinking it could be an underground fault."
The mum admitted that she felt frustrated after going hours without water and she claimed the council only issued bottles of water to residents at the bottom of the stairs 25 hours after the water was first cut off.
The lift in the high-rise is currently out of order, Panella explained, and added: "Just the treatment we have had as residents, in general, has been a nightmare.
"I have an elderly neighbour in her 80s who I had to go to the shops and get water for within the hour yesterday as she was at my door worried. That should have been the council. Not 25 hours later."
Edinburgh Council confirmed on Sunday night that Scottish Power has been in attendance and power was restored earlier that day with water supplied while work to fully restore supply was ongoing.
By Monday morning, Panella said that the water and electric had finally returned to the building.
A Council spokesperson said: “We became aware that Scottish Power were dealing with an issue of an intermittent power supply on Saturday evening but had been notified that the power had been restored. As soon as we were alerted that there was an ongoing power issue in the early hours of Sunday morning housing staff immediately attended to investigate.
“We then arranged for a plumber and joiner to go the block to try and pinpoint the source of the leak so it could be dealt with. As the water pumps were being switched on and off we arranged for bottled water to be delivered to the block. Investigations are ongoing but it would appear that the source of the leak was from a private property that was entering the main power supply unit. Officers will work with the property owner to ensure the repairs are fully completed.”
A ScottishPower Energy Networks spokeswoman said: “Due to water damage caused by flooding in the building, power supplies at Nisbet Court were affected over the weekend. Our engineers attended immediately and safely restored the power as quickly as possible. We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused.”
