JAJARKOT: Residents of Khalanga, the headquarters of Jajarkot district, are reeling under acute shortage of drinking water. According to locals, draught, deforestation and depletion of water sources were the main causes of water shortage. “We are facing acute shortage of water due to prolonged drought this year,” members of Drinking Water Consumers’ Committee said. “It is due to the carelessness on the part of Khalanga based Bhagwati Community Forest Consumers’ Group and the District Forest Office that drought has hit this region,” locals said, attributing growing deforestation as the major cause of water crisis. Though the construction of several drinking water projects were planned in Jajarkot district, they never fully came into operation, said Surat Bom, chief at Drinking Water and Sanitation Sub-Division Office. “Even as deforestation continues at an alarming rate, the community forest and district forest offices are acting as mere spectators,” Hemjung Shah, chairman of Bhagwati Drinking Water and Sanitation Consumer Committee, said adding, if the problem were not solved soon, it would gradually affect the entire district.