Local Rowan student spends spring break helping town in El Salvador

April 15, 2008

It was definitely warm weather and pleasant scenery where Jesse Kidd, a 21-year-old senior studying civil engineering at Rowan University, spent his spring break. However, luxury took on another form on this trip. Kidd's bed was a two-inch-thick foam mat, his bathroom was a hole in the ground, and the shower-a cold, polluted river.

The Pennsville native had all of his comforts in knowing he was part of a group that spent their free time reaching out to help a town that has no clean, potable drinking water and suffers from illnesses associated with consuming the polluted river water.

From March 14 through March 22, Kidd and six other members of the Rowan chapter of Engineers Without BordersTM spent its time assessing La Ceiba-a town that is home to 463 people in El Salvador, Central America.

EWB-USATM is a non-profit organization committed to designing and implementing engineering projects in developing communities around the world. Such projects include renewable energy, clean water supplies and sustainable enterprise development. The organization's volunteers also include individuals with backgrounds in business, journalism, health and education, according to the organization.

The town currently relies on a polluted river and shallow, hand-dug wells as its main source of water. The exhausting labor of gathering water for daily use takes many hours, and water is scarce in the four-month-long dry season each year.

The town's dilemma became apparent to Rowan EWBTM when a Peace Corps volunteer reached out to the members. In May 2007, Kidd and several other Rowan EWB members traveled to La Ceiba for the initial assessment, which consisted of land surveying, water quality testing, and interacting with community members to understand their needs.

Through that trip, members of EWBTM learned that because the townsfolk ingest the unsanitary water, as many as 34 children have died, and much of the town population has suffered intestinal and digestive illnesses.

"Going on a trip like this lets you know what you take for granted. Living without running water for a week makes you think about it every time you wash your hands. It teaches you not to take life for granted," Kidd said.

During the latest trip, Kidd and two other engineering team members conducted a detailed land survey of the community to determine distances between the main road and the houses and to plot the elevation differences throughout the town.

"It was the most amazing experience of my life. Of course I felt this way last time but this trip really stood apart. I really felt like we bonded with the community and the families this time, and I felt they thoroughly understood our intentions and the importance of sanitation. Last time the trip was fun and productive, but I was ready to leave at the end. This time I did not want to go," Kidd said.

"I have never had amore rewarding experience than this trip and this project. EWB is a great organization and I plan on being involved for a long time to come," he said.

Rowan's EWBTM chapter currently is working on another project with a community in Senegal, West Africa, in an effort to provide it with clean drinking water. The group hopes to travel to this village in the summer. Past Rowan EWBTM projects have included developing a potable-water distribution system in the Honduran community of Mataderos and installing a water distribution system in Pateung, Thailand.

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