TANAHUN: The villagers of Salsisne in Bhanu VDC-5 have been forced to drink the undrinkable water of the local streams of Marsyandi and Chudi after a water storage tank in the area was poisoned by some unidentified persons on Monday night.

The local residents of some 150 households said that they were left with no option but to consume the murky water after their sole source was poisoned. Some miscreants reportedly poured Metacid poison in the storage tank of 16,000 litre capacity. Police also recovered containers of the poison nearby.

Ash Bahadur Lama, chairman of consumers' committee, said they were baffled whether to drink the water again or not.

The water tank was constructed with the budget of Rs 15 million.

Meanwhile, the police said that they were carrying out investigation to establish who was involved in the inhuman act. They have also announced the reward of Rs 10,000 to the person for providing tip-off that leads to the identification and arrest of the "criminals".

The villagers luckily escaped the potential disaster after some of them noticed the poison containers while washing face nearby.

"Had it not been revealed, then all of us would have been perished," said one.

They also demanded sternest action against those involved in the crime.