Northern Ireland has a water problem - 60,000 cut off

While Australia has "Biblical" water issues, Northern Ireland has a different water problem.
Over 60,000 homes in Northern Ireland were left without water because engineers temporarily cut off overnight after supplies to allow depleted reservoirs to refill.

The homes were placed on this rotating on/off supply, but the Underfire Northern Ireland Water said it had hoped to end rotation by Saturday but was unable to do so.

To make matters worse, vandals emptied out almost 5,000 gallons of water from temporary tanks in one of the badly hit areas in Coalisland, Co Tyrone.

Freezing, arctic weather, then a sudden thaw caused many pipes to burst in buildings and in the mains supply, draining huge amounts of water from the tanks.

The Scottish Executive is continuing to supply Northern Ireland with thousands of litres of bottled water to help cope with the crisis.

Even though NI Water has the responsibility for leaking pipes in the main system, that responsibility ends when the supply enters properties, then it becomes the property owners problem.

But what's to be done when many of the leaks are affecting unoccupied homes and businesses?

Instead of addressing that issue, NIW spokesperson said, "NI Water would reiterate its appeal to customers to check their premises for any damage to pipes and repair these as soon as possible."

Stormont's Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy yesterday said that there will be an independent probe is to examine the causes of the crisis.