Doctors warned the continued shortages could spark a public health crisis as engineers struggled to repair thousands of pipes which sprang leaks following some of the coldest weather in the British province for decades.

Some 34,000 people were still without running water on Thursday and some families have not had toilet or washing facilities for 11 days. Almost 80 towns and villages have been affected across Northern Ireland.

Scottish authorities have helped by shipping in 160,000 litres of bottled water to be distributed to homes and businesses.

Some politicians have said the crisis points to a chronic lack of investment in a province which only emerged a decade ago from 30 years of killings and bombings known as the Troubles.

But Edwin Poots, the environment minister in the semi-autonomous Northern Ireland Assembly, said the "buck stops" with the local water company and criticised its poor communication with angry homeowners.

He said engineers have restored water to 15,000 of the 40,000 homes without water but the thaw meant another 9,000 properties lost their supply.

Poots said three billion pounds (3.5 billion euros, 4.7 billion dollars) had been invested in recent years but the problem was a "historic issue" -- and he insisted Northern Ireland Water and not the government was to blame.

The minister told BBC radio: "The buck stops with Northern Ireland Water."

He added: "The under-investment that took place was over the period of direct rule.

"A lot of that was really down to the Troubles, when money was diverted from areas such as water to pay for bombs and security services and so forth. But if you have 30 years of under-investment, you are not going to catch up in four or five."

First Minister Peter Robinson and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness were to take charge of the emergency talks.

Phillip Dempster, 31, from south Belfast, has been suffering from interrupted supplies since the thaw began just after December 25.

"It is just terrible, having to queue for water, it just should not happen," he said.

"I have young children at home with the school holidays, it is just dreadful."

earlier related report
Anger mounts in N.Ireland as burst pipes cut water supplies
Belfast (AFP) Dec 30, 2010 - Anger was mounting in Northern Ireland on Thursday among tens of thousands of people left without water supplies after a rapid thaw of pipes following freezing weather caused many to burst.

Doctors warned the continued shortages could spark a public health crisis after the massive interruption in supplies to homes and businesses left about 36,000 people without running water.

A major effort has been set in motion to tackle the crisis, with Scotland sending in lorries carrying 160,000 litres of bottled water.

Some families have not had toilet or washing facilities for 11 days and almost 80 towns and villages have been affected across Northern Ireland after the thaw, which followed some of the coldest weather in living memory.

Anger at Northern Ireland Water (NIW), the government-owned supplier in the province, was growing as people queued with containers at water distribution centres.

"Every time we call Northern Ireland Water it's the same -- they have no idea when it will be turned on," James Lawson, from Lisburn, just south of Belfast, told the BBC.

"It's disgraceful and now becoming a health risk."

Lawson said he had been going to a leisure centre three miles (4.8 kilometres) away to collect water and had resorted to going to go to the toilet outside to save water.

Health experts warned that the lack of water for people to drink, wash and flush toilets meant the situation presented real health risks.

"This is really now a public health emergency," said Peter Maguire, a doctor in the province.

"People with young families have not been able to flush toilets and wash themselves, never mind get access to drinking water. It's just not good enough. What's happening is really not acceptable."

Leisure centres in the province are opening up to provide shower facilities and civil servants have been drafted in to call centres in support of staff answering thousands of queries from the public.

Northern Ireland's devolved administration will hold a crisis meeting in Belfast on Thursday to discuss what extra measures can be taken.

"People feel they were let down, and they were let down," admitted Deputy First Minster Martin McGuinness.

"NI Water's response was clearly inadequate and we are now looking urgently at what further measures can be taken to alleviate the problems people are facing," said a statement from the Northern Ireland government.

Pressure was growing on Laurence McKenzie, the chief executive of NIW, and the regional development minister Conor Murphy in the wake of the crisis.

McKenzie admitted there was "a lot for this organisation to learn" but blamed problems on the rapid change in temperatures, which he said went from well below freezing to 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) in a short time.

NIW said late Wednesday that 95 percent of customers were getting water after supplies were increased to their highest ever level. It is expected to take a few days before repairs are complete and the system is back to normal.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News