KATHMANDU: World Water Day is marked on March 22 every year to highlight the importance of water resource and its uses. In this pretext, the United Nations (UN) has set a theme for World water Day 2018 as "Nature for Water" with an aim to explore nature based solutions for the water challenges faced by millions of people across the globe.

According to worldwaterday.org-UN, damaged ecosystems affect the quantity and quality of water available for human consumption. Today, 2.1 billion people live without safe drinking water at home; affecting their health, education and livelihoods.

Moreover, the Sustainable Development Goal 6 commits the world to ensuring that everyone has access to safe water by 2030, with Nepal not being an exception.

However, the reality bites in hard as thousands of Valley denizens slog in mid-day heat back and forth to their homes and stone spouts scattered around their localities to haul water for household purposes.

In this backdrop, THT Photo Journalist Skanda Gautam undertook a mission to capture the plights of the Valley denizens toiling to manage water for their homes on World Water Day 2018.

Here are few grabs to mark the day:

A woman collects drinking water from a traditional water spout on World Day for Water in Lalitpur, on Thursday, March 22, 2018. Photo: Skanda Gautam