Challenge of having access to public utilities in Bukavu (DRC): Electricity, Water, Healthcare, Justice, and Education

The enjoyment of human rights cannot be effective for citizens unless they equally have access to public utilities such as water, electricity, healthcare, justice and education infrastructures and facilities. As s pointed out by a research published by Yash Ghai & Jill Cottrell in 2004, “without securing economic and social, as well as civil and political rights, the most deprived, vulnerable and powerless peoples of the world remain excluded from the enjoyment of their essential human entitlements.(…)what is essential is that all human rights are translated into practices so that their enjoyment becomes a reality”.[1]  Indeed, deprived peoples, whether in Africa or worldwide, the lack or the absence of public utilities is a sign of underdevelopment and citizens who do not have access to water, healthcare, electricity, education, and even information  have a little chance or not to improve their livelihoods and contribute to the economic growth of their countries. So, I am not assuming that citizens do not need state or governmental control to allow them enjoying their rights. For, “in modern societies, rights cannot be fully protected by preventing governmental intrusions in the lives of citizens[2]. In the contrary, the lack or the absence of the state authority (and control) is somehow worse than freedom. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), since 1990, the state has been collapsing and the major yardstick of such a collapse can be found in the public administration in terms of lack of governance leading to corruption, tax evasion, impunity and no access to public utilities. In this article, I first focused on the topic by dealing with the methodological aspects I used to collect data, the findings of the research. Then, findings will be discussed in terms of recommendations to raise decision-makers ‘awareness on the relationship between public utilities access and human development or well-being. Finally, within my conclusion, I came up with some limitations or gaps to overcome in order to improve this study.

1. Methodological approaches   I have to mention that this study was conducted from 2013 to 2014 in Bukavu, the capital of the South Kivu Province in DRC, as part of my research in Public Administration & Development Studies, at the Catholic University of Bukavu(UCB). The research was entitled “Ethics in Public Administration in Bukavu. Towards a Philosophy of Development through Corruption Tackling”. The observation and exploration of the research site have been supported by a literature review dealing with ethics in public administration and development around the world, in DRC and in South Kivu. I made a profit of deductive approach in the treatment of collected data since it seemed easier to start from general points to particular ones, i.e. from the ethical crisis in given states to DRC and South Kivu and its public administration which might be understood as  a microcosm of a failed state