Sankhuwasabha, November 25:

People of Khandbari, the Sankhuwasabha district headquarters, have been facing acute shortage of drinking water for a week.

With no water in taps, Khandbari locals could be seen queuing up in adjoining areas well before dawn. They have to walk an hour to collect water. “We have to wait for about two hours to collect water from springs,” Sunil Shrestha, a Khandbari hotelier said, adding that some residents had to return with empty jars, as the volume of spring water decreases in the winter.

Khandbari municipality, the body responsible for the distribution of the drinking water, has not been pro-active to resolve the crisis.

“Basically, there is no dearth of sources of water. The shortage is, however, caused by a lack of proper management,” said Bhola Man Shrestha, a local.

Farmers around the source of water supplied to the municipality cut pipes to siphon off water to their fields for irrigation. Khandbari municipality has done nothing to check that. Pipe network in the town is also not without a fault. Water leaks for lack of repair in the bazaar, locals said, adding that over 1,500 locals of Khandbari have been directly hit by water scarcity.

Municipality officials, however, said the problem was not going to affect the town for long, as a larger drinking water project was in the pipeline. Yubaraj Dahal, executive officer at the municipality, points at the understaffed local body for the problem in water supply.