Polar storm

ON READING your coverage (8 September) on Exercise Polar Storm, I wondered if any senior representatives of Scottish Water had been invited to attend?

We all remember the dramatic media images of stranded vehicles on motorways and drivers marooned in 20 below temperatures. This tended to override the memories of the dreadful impact of the harsh conditions on our antiquated water supply infrastructure.

 Such was the demand from customers seeking emergency assistance that Scottish Water had to set up response centres in other parts of the UK, to deal with customers faced with frozen or burst pipes and the need for bottled water.

My home village of Blair Atholl exemplified the problem in microcosm. In a new supply system installed in 2007, 95 per cent of pipes installed by Scottish Water failed to meet the minimum burial depth required (75cm) and some customers had no water for up to six weeks, as ground frosts penetrated to 120cm.

To add insult to injury, it was days before bottled water supplies reached the village, whilst Alex Salmond was boasting that Scotland was awash with water and was sending thousands of litres of bottled water to Northern Ireland.

 The harbingers for this winter are not good, both in terms of the severity predicted by several weather agencies and the response so far from Scottish Water. We have been assured that an 80cm burial depth will protect pipes in an area where frost penetrates to 120cm and can get at least 5 degrees colder than the minimum recorded last winter.

In the meantime in areas of Scandinavia where frosts are actually less than that experienced in Blair Atholl, Altnaharra or Braemar, water pipes are buried to 150cm.

Whilst residents in Norway can await the winter with confidence, Scottish Water customers await it with trepidation whilst its senior staff are in anticipation of the Finance Secretary, John Swinney, once more signing off their bonus payments.

Ron Greer

Armoury House

Blair Atholl