Kathmandu, Aug. 17 -- Kathmandu Valley's stone spouts were once gushing with water. Now they're slowly disappearing.

Om Shrestha remembers when the gold-plated stone spout near his home in Patan Durbar Square flowed round the year with water so clear you could drink it straight from the tap. As a child, he would visit the fountains morning and night, using them to bathe, brush his teeth, and collect water for his family for cooking and cleaning. Even in the winter, when water was otherwise scarce in his predominantly Newar neighbourhood, Shrestha would be amazed to find crystalline water still pouring forth from the shiny mouths of the crocodilian motifs that adorned the spouts.

"That's how it was back then," said Shrestha, who is now 4...