It’s difficult to imagine that in an era with such technological advances and self government, we would not expect scenes of householders clambering to get emergency supplies of bottled water or businesses resorting to desperate measures to ensure they produced their goods or schools closing because they could not ensure hygiene and safety of their pupils.

It has been a difficult weekend for many householders and businesses in various parts of the county as water supplies failed when the main water treatment plant suffered mechanical problems and NI Water engineers continued their work to rule which resulted in no weekend cover for such emergencies.

The blame is being put squarely on the cutbacks imposed on government departments.

But this latest work to rule is over pensions.

So when the Killyhevlin Water Treatment Plant suffered a breakdown to one of its pumps on Sunday, thousands of customers, many of them already paying for their water as businesses, suffered a failure in supply.

This was not just an hour or two delay in the water supply. It went on for most of Sunday and well into Monday for most and this in the middle of winter.

It was not only about the inconvenience caused to many people, but actually the potential harm to businesses, especially farmers who rely on and pay for their water to ensure they produced food for the table. Dairy farmers depend heavily on a good water supply, for consumption by cows who are now on a high maintenance feeding regime during winter which requires them to drink regularly but also for cleaning out the milking parlour pipeline to ensure it is clean. The worry now is that cows’ production will suffer as a result of this.

It’s easy to blame one side or another for a fall out of this nature but surely eventually both sides will get round a table to thrash out their differences and come to suitable conclusion rather than this type of stand off.

For many in Fermanagh at the weekend, that could not come soon enough because they do not want a repeat situation.