The Urban Agriculture Network (UrbANet), Tamale based non-governmental organisation, (NGO) on Thursday trained journalists on the rights to water and sanitation in Tamale.

The event was to update and enhance the knowledge of the journalists’ on rights to water and sanitation in the Northern Region and to use the skills to educate the public. Mr Zakaria A. Rashid, Executive Director of the NGO, said the poor and the vulnerable are denied the right to their basic needs such as water, education, food and healthcare especially in rural communities.

He said it is important for people in the rural areas to have access to safe drinking water to prevent them from contracting communicable diseases. He stressed the need for the media to create more awareness on sanitation and hygiene issues to reduce diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera and diarrhoea.

Mr Rashid called on other state institutions and other NGOs to collaborate to fight the poor sanitation and water conditions in the Northern Region.