PANCHTHAR: A shortage of drinking water at Yasok Bazaar, the centre of Kummayak Rural Municipality, has made the day-to-day life of locals difficult.

The problem arose after the local market management committee removed water pipes installed in the market area. Prior to this, each household was getting 50 litres of drinking water once in every two days.

Water scarcity is not a new occurrence at Yasok which normally remains dry, but the complete disruption in the supply of tap water has paralysed life, according to local hotelier Keshab Thapa.

There isn't any natural or artificial water source nearby and the locals are forced to be dependent on the supply by local government through tractors but in a very limited quantity.

The rural municipality has started fetching water from the local Chhorunga stream and distributing it to the locals. Tractors are used to transport stream water to the area.

Earlier, the 650 households at Yasok were using drinking water supplied by the Yasok Deurali Drinking Water Project. Regular supply (once in two days) was also too less to meet their demand. There is a demand of around 250,000 litres of water per day at Yasok.

According to Yasok Market Management Consumers' Committee secretary Mahendra Bahadur Khadka, water pipes were removed (without any alternative arrangement) in course of market management efforts and it will take some more days to restore them, which would extend the water scarcity for few more days.