Scottish Water has outlined its response to a major water mains incident that affected supplies to 6,000 properties in the Borders. The disruption, which began on Tuesday, 26 August, was caused by a fault at the Rawburn Water Treatment Works near Duns, which supplies up to seven million litres of water per day to over 10,000 properties.

The incident caused a loss of water supply, low pressure, and intermittent service for residents and businesses in areas including Duns, Eccles, and Coldstream. The company apologised for the inconvenience, with Water Operations General Manager John Griffen describing it as "undoubtedly one of the biggest and most challenging incidents" the utility has ever faced in the region.

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To restore supplies, Scottish Water launched a "massive" response, including a large-scale tankering operation with over 20 tankers operating 24 hours a day. The company moved more than 12 million litres of water by road, which it says significantly reduced the length of the outage.

The company also deployed more than 100 additional workers to distribute bottled water to customers, delivering around 100,800 bottles and setting up 15 collection points. A dedicated farm task team was also set up to support agricultural businesses.

Mr Griffen said a full investigation into the cause of the incident has been launched and that the company will carry out an internal review of its response to identify improvements.