About 100 homes in Arran and Green Sts were left without any water from the town's supply after multiple failures in the water mains.
Residents in High St were also without water for most of yesterday.
Dunedin City Council contracts manager William Clifford said most repairs on the water network were completed by yesterday morning and the final repairs were expected to be completed last night.
It was thought the variable pressure in the pipes caused by the Mosgiel reservoir being taken out of service for routine maintenance and cleaning caused the bursts, Mr Clifford said.
``When water is not going through a reservoir, water pressure in the network is more variable, which can cause problems with more vulnerable parts of the network.''
The bursts highlighted some vulnerable pipes in the area and the council would reassess their priority for replacement.
A water tanker was made available for residents outside Silverstream Primary School from Saturday afternoon until yesterday morning.
Resident Jackie Griffin said she had no water at her home for most of Saturday and Sunday and was disappointed there had been no direct communication from the council about what was happening.
``We rang the council a few times and each time they said it would only be off for a few hours.''
No running water meant she could not bathe her two young children and had to buy filtered water to make baby formula.
``The water truck was a help once it got there Saturday arvo but we have still had to buy water and pay to do washing.''
Another resident Janice Westland said if she had not checked the council's Facebook page she would have had no idea about why there was no water.
``We get told about when the power is going off for a day when they replace poles; well, council could've told us about no water for a day,'' Mrs Westland said.
Mr Clifford said it was unusual to have multiple bursts in one area but the council would review its own and contractors' communication processes to see if any changes were needed.
In situations such as at the weekend, contractors were fully occupied repairing pipes, but were always happy to answer questions from residents.
It was unlikely there would be any more issues in the area now the reservoir was back in service and the repairs were expected to cost about $10,000.
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Comments
With respect to everyone concerned, How can a council provide notice for a water-main failure? This is un-planned, and where multiple events occur, no-one can provide an accurate time frame for service to return to normal.
Inconvenient..... yes.... but did anyone stop to say thanks to the workers who put their community before their family over the weekend?
Well said blu0096
Big difference between planned work (power pole replacement) and reactive work (burst pipes). The best preventative maintenance plans in the world won't predict all infrastructure failures.
There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometers of underground pipes of varying age and material for water, waste etc around the city. You expect to see a few failures now and then. It's good that the Council dept concerned has plans in place for alternative water supplies when services are temporarily down.
While inconvenient, I don't see that these Mosgiel residents have anything to complain about in this case.