1 out of 5 people in our world lack safe, clean, drinking water. 20 runners from the Blue Planet Run Foundation, are currently circling the earth; running over 15,000 miles, to raise awareness and money for safe drinking water projects around the globe. They began in New York City, USA, on June 1, 2007, and will cross USA, Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Mongolia, China, Japan and Canada. Running in relays, 24 hours a day, they are joined by guest runners along the route and finish back in New York City on September 4, 2007.
Here is a clip of David Christof carrying the baton through his hometown of Prague, Czech Republic as the runners makes their way to Vienna, Austria and on to Krakow and Warsaw, Poland.
If you want to know how you can get involved or are able to make a donation, visit the Blue Planet Run Foundation website.
During the 2008 Olympics, avoid drinking tap water outside the Olympic Village. That is the message in a recent article by Stephen Wade, of Associated Press. It seems that few of the 15 million residents of Beijing drink water from the tap, which is known to be contaminated, relying instead on bottled water.
It reminds me of a trip to Moscow some years back when a similar warning was issued to us. The warning pointed out that it was easy to inadvertently drink the tap water by putting ice in drinks or even eating washed salad. The upside was that we got to clean our teeth using Vodka!
