YOUNGSTERS were sent home from school after four villages were left without water all day.
Hackness School was forced to close after yesterday's unplanned disruption, while neighbouring Suffield, Broxa and Slipho were also hit.
A spokesman for Yorkshire Water said an air-lock had developed in one of the main water supply pipes, preventi
ng the flow of water.
He said: "It goes without saying that we apologise for this unplanned disruption to water supplies and would like to reassure residents of Suffield, Broxa, Hackness and Silpho affected by this disruption that we are doing everything we can to get their water supply back to normal as soon as possible.
"While carrying out a routine cleaning of our reservoir at Scalby Cap one of our main water supply pipes leading from the reservoir developed an air-lock which is preventing the flow of water through the pipe. Our on-site team immediately began trying to locate the air-lock and our investigation is ongoing."
Residents were given bottled water and water tankers were sent to the villages.
The spokesman added: "We have tried to keep any inconvenience felt by this temporary disruption to a minimum."
Jenny Hartley, headteacher at Hackness School, made the decision to close the school at 8am yesterday.
"All the children were sent back home and it was hoped school will open as normal today.
Miss Hartley said: "We did not know anything about it until we arrived at school in the morning.
"I was told Yorkshire Water workers had been working through the night to find the problem so we knew they were trying to sort it. But we just could not open the school without water."
The full article contains 288 words and appears in Scarborough Evening News newspaper.
