Waiting on the government?

One of the most famous presidential quotes is the United States’ John F. Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Over fifty years later, Tanzania reports “…only a quarter of households in the country use modern latrines (toilets)…”
Conceding to the fact on the World Environment Day last week, Minister for Health and Social Welfare Dr Seif Rashid said the figure is according to findings from a study done by the ministry last year.

Making matters worse, he acknowledged that 29.6 per cent of the surveyed households had no sanitation facilities whatsoever, that is, approximately 30 per cent of Tanzanian families have nowhere to relieve themselves!

Couple those appalling figures with government’s big plan to resolve the crisis “…to have at least 53 per cent of households using modern latrines by 2016,” and you come to the sickening realisation that, two years from now, only a little over half of Tanzanians will have toilets.

Who is to say that your family will be on the half that get access to sanitation facilities and if you end up on the other half that will inevitably be left out, of course with sound explanations of limited resources, what then?
Well, here are your two options; first, as you and the rest of the country have probably been doing since independence, over fifty years ago, wait for the government to do it for you or option number two, do it yourself.

If you are right about now asking what about my taxes and what is the purpose of the government to start with, then you are on the right track.

However, you would do well to note that both of those questions are the exact opposite of president Kennedy’s advice, or rather, waiting for the government to get you a tractor, give you better education, get you a job, provide clean water, increase access to healthcare and even, build toilets, what you are really doing is ‘looking at what your country can do for you and not what you can do for your country.’

At this point you should be up in arms, for if you are to give to the country or rather the government and not the other way around, then why are you being taxed left, right and centre; taxed when you buy, taxed when sell and even taxed when you earn?

The balance of responsibility between the individual and the government is upset by these expectations. That because I pay taxes I should in turn receive social services least of which being a decent toilet, but that is not the reality on the ground.

While you wait for the government to live up to its end of the bargain, you should know that, this year’s ministry of health report shows, well over half of all patients, mostly children and women, suffer from hygiene related waterborne diseases.

Unfortunately, should you choose to build your own toilet, you will again be thwarted by the fact that, if you are one of the 80 per cent of Tanzanian’s living in rural areas or if you are one of the majority of city slum dwellers, for you, there are no sewage drainage system to connect your toilet to!
There you are. Try or not, you find yourself, waiting on the government.