It is claimed that state authorities should make citizens look after their local environment. I completely agree with this statement, as it encourages every person to take responsibility and because the government cannot protect the environment on its own.
To begin with, holding citizens accountable motivates them to care actively for the area they live in. In other words, when people face the risk of getting fined for littering, they have a strong incentive to keep their surroundings clean and dispose of waste properly. Moreover, since it is their own neighbourhood, they also have a personal interest in maintaining it, as a clean area directly affects their quality of life. For instance, in Singapore, strict fines for littering have transformed the city into one of the cleanest in the world. Thus, combining personal accountability with real consequences changes everyday behaviour far more effectively than government campaigns alone.
Furthermore, it is practically impossible for governments to monitor every local area due to severe budgetary and administrative constraints. State authorities tend to focus on larger concerns such as factories, road infrastructure and social facilities. As a result, they are unable to oversee every local park and garden, as there is simply not enough staff to maintain them. To illustrate, even if a waste management company cleaned every local park, there would be little point in doing so if residents did not dispose of their rubbish in the designated bins. Consequently, without active involvement of local residents, governments efforts alone are unlikely to keep communities clean.
To conclude, although protecting the environment is partly the state’s duty, I firmly believe that citizens must also be held responsible, as this both encourages better behaviour and compensates for the governments’ limited reach.