About 70 percent of hotels and inns at the Wakura hot spring resort in Noto Peninsula, central Japan, are still without water. It's now more than three months since a powerful earthquake hit the area on New Year's Day.

The resort faces a bay in Nanao City, Ishikawa Prefecture. The water supply was cut off in almost all areas of the city following the disaster. All of the 21 hotels and inns that belong to a trade association at Wakura Onsen were forced to shut down.

Water mains were restored across the city on April 1. But the pipes connecting them to buildings are still being repaired.

Fifteen of the lodging facilities still don't have running water. One of them, a Japanese-style inn named Hamazuru, is not open for regular business but offers rooms for reconstruction workers.

The inn's staff have been busy carrying water in portable tanks to flush the toilets.

A Hamazuru representative says it may take another month or so to restore water supplies. He says hot spring water is also not available, but he wants to offer a warm bath to the workers once running water is back and the baths are repaired.

None of the hotels and inns at Wakura Onsen is operating normally. It is not clear when it will be able to fully reopen.