Some Hamilton businesses could have to wait until the end of next week for their water supply to be fully restored.

Other customers of Bermuda Waterworks should be back on line by the end of the weekend, as engineers work round the clock to repair a major fault on the system.

Yesterday there was disruption to water supply in the city and surrounding area as officials tried to make up for an entire day's loss of production caused by the mechanical breakdown.

The problem was compounded as the reservoir was at its lowest weekly level, and they battled to keep the water flowing for priority customers such as hotels.

Chief executive officer Allan Rance said they had several hundred customers in the Hamilton area but it was difficult to say how many had been affected by the breakdown.

"Please be understanding and bear with us. Our staff are working their hearts out to resume services to everybody as quickly as possible,'' he said.

The problem occurred after a pump failed at the seawater reverse osmosis plant.

A communication fault meant the failure wasn't discovered until the following morning -- and a total system shutdown had occurred, losing 500,000 gallons of water production.

Yesterday pumping capacity was up to 50 percent and today it is expected to hit 70 percent, with the majority of users being restored over the weekend.

WATER WAT