Kathmandu, January 3:

A group of private water suppliers, who collect water from the hills at Ichangu village, today demanded the government make its role clear in solving their problem after locals barred them from collecting the water.

The locals have barred them from collecting water from their locality accusing them of contributing to the drying up of their local water resources — including the Panchdhara spout — in their locality.

Madan Dhakal, the managing director of Ichangu Water Suppliers, said the government should come up with clear vision on the issue. “We have been serving the public, but the locals did not allow us to collect the water from the usual source. The government should have a clear policy on the issue,” he said.

The private water suppliers extract water from wells dug in their private land and sell it in the city areas. They claimed there is no connection between drying up of water spouts and their extracting of ground water. Neither the water in spout has dried up, they said.

He said the locals were trying to stop them from collecting water so that they could collect water and sell it to the water suppliers.

Gyan Bahadur KC, chairman of the Panchdhara Conservation and Water Consumers’ Committee, said nobody could take away water from the area that affects the traditional water spouts.