Kathmandu December: Media can play vital role in information dissemination and social development. But in the developing countries like Nepal,development issues have found insignificant priority in the mainstream journalism. Relealizing this fact, a two-day training on Effective Media Communication Skills was organized for Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) professionals in Kathmandu on 18th/19th December 2008. UN-HABITAT Water for Asian Cities (WAC) Programme Nepal and GUTHI organized the training to boost up media communication skills of communication officers of WAC Partners. Mr. Triratna Manandhar, Chief Trainer briefed the participants on various strategies to deal with media and provided the tips to maintain good relation with media. The training focused on building effecitive media communication skills of the participants. Senior newspaper editors, radio and TV journalists also shared their experiences with the participants as resource persons during the training. Mr. Hari Bahadur Thapa, Editor of Kantipur Daily, advised the participants to present their information in an innovative way for effective media coverage. He told that media always prioritize accurate, balanced,credible and reliable issues. Mr. Badri Tiwari, Editor of Nepal Samacharpatra; Mr. Nabin Aryal from Gorkha FM and Mr.Shreeram Paudel from Image Television oriented the participants on different aspects of journalism. Mr. Pawan Joshi, Documentation Assistant of UN-HABITAT mentioned about www.urbwatsan.org.np, a website developed to circulate urban WATSAN issues and activities. Highlighting on the importance of communication skill, Mr. Prakash Amatya, Coordintor of Fresh Water Network-Nepal said that the organizations should select an appropriate media to deliver the information to target groups. Director of GUTHI, Mr. Anil Sthapit suggested to implement the skills learnt in the training in action to disseminate information through media. He also advised the participants to share WATSAN information regularly with media.