They said many lives and properties have been lost as a result of the perennial flooding of the area during the rainy seasons, especially the bridge across the Gariba Lodge main gutter, which took the life of a 59 year old woman last year and destroyed several properties. 

They made the call through the Sagnarigu Municipal Assembly at the weekend in Kalpohin during a town hall meeting organised by the Catholic Archdiocese of Tamale in collaboration with Justice and Peace Commission and Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference.

The Town hall meeting was aimed at bringing the residents together with the Municipal Assembly to interact and share developmental issues affecting them and how they could be addressed.

It was on the theme:"Community Participation in Local Governance for Rapid and Sustainable Development".

The residents also complained about the poor waste disposal system in some of the areas as a result of the lack of commitment of the Zoomlion officials towards emptying the central refuse containers in most areas within the Municipality.

 Students of the Kalpohin Senior High School also expressed worry over the lack of furniture and space as well as the poorly dilapidated state of their toilet facilities and called on government to come to their aid.

Mrs Comfort Afelik Asitik, President of Justice and Peace Commission of Sacred Heart Parish,  Kalpohin, encouraged the citizenry to always participate in any activity regarding their municipality and demand for their rights without any political influences to help ensure sustainable development  in their communities.

 Mrs Lillian Kuutiero, the Commissioner of the Justice and Peace Commission and also one of the Project Coordinators of the Local Governance project, said the town hall meeting was one of the social responsibilities of the Commission to ensuring social justice through citizens and stakeholders participation to ensure equity especially at the grassroots level.

Alhaji Abdul Razak Saani, the Northern Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), said community participation was necessary if people intended to get the needed development in the country.

He advised the citizenry to pay their taxes as a part of their civic responsibilities to help government generate the needed revenue to successfully implement developmental projects for sustainable development.

He urged the citizenry to help report criminal cases without fear or favour to the right authorities and make sure they follow up to ensure that justice was administered.

Dr Asitik A. Joseph, the Chairman for the Laity Council, Sacred Heart Parish, urged traditional and religious leaders to actively participate in activities of local governance so as to help hold duty bearers accountable. 

Mr Toyibu A. Hamid, the Planning Officer of the Sagnarigu Municipal Assembly who spoke on behalf of the Municipal Chief Executive, said it was the Assembly's duty to provide the needed development to the grassroots through a participatory community action plan, but expressed dissatisfaction at the low interest of the citizenry towards participation in developmental programmes in the Municipality.

He, therefore, entreated all the community members to take key interest in participating in platforms such as the Town hall meetings as a channel to demand for their needs.  Mr Hamid said, however, that the Assembly's major problem was that it relied solely on donor funding to undertake developmental projects in the Municipality.

He said the Assembly's resource funds for 2018 constituted about 95 per cent from donor funding and the remaining five per cent constituted its Internally Generated Funds (IGF).  He said as a result of this, the Assembly could not meet its targeted budget of GH¢415,000.00 since it had only GH¢240,000.00 in September indicating that the Municipality's budget for 2018 was not achievable.

Mr Hamid urged the citizenry at the community level to help in mobilising resources for the Municipality to help carry on its developmental projects.  He also assured the citizenry that the Assembly was doing its best to help address most of the concerns raised.

Mr Issah Mohammed Hardi, Water and Sanitation Officer of the Municipality, said the issue of waste management was a major problem in the Municipality, as it rated zero per cent in terms of sanitation in the Northern Region's District League Table.

He said most of the houses in the Municipality had no toilet facilities and therefore urged the citizenry to help in the successful implementation of the "one house, one toilet" project so as to help reduce open defecation in the Municipality.