Tens of thousands of homes and businesses in Northern Ireland are still without supplies as engineers are struggling to plug burst pipes.

Some families have not had fresh running water for eight days. Northern Ireland’s escalating drinking water crisis is in danger of developing into a major health emergency, it was claimed.

Scotland has offered to supply bottled water in a bid to ease the emergency. Northern Ireland Water (NIW), the company at the centre of the crisis, said it was unable to say when supplies would be fully restored. Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy had talks with officials yesterday to consider ongoing operations and the sort of swift action needed to deal with the situation.

Scotland is providing 160,000 litres of water in a bid to ease Northern Ireland’s drinking water crisis.

Last night, the chief executive officer of Northern Ireland Water faced demands to quit over the water fiasco.