Swank Touts Clean Water As Runners Push the Cause

Jun 03, 10:43 AM

Current Headlines: Hilary Swank hopes a round-the-world run will raise awareness of the world's 1.1 billion people who lack access to clean drinking water.

As part of the Blue Planet Run, 20 runners will log 15,200 miles over 95 days. Each participant will run 10 miles at a time.

Just before the first runner left the U.N. lawn Friday to set out for Boston, the two-time Academy Award winner said she had taken the "ordinary miracle" of clean drinking water "for granted far too many times."

"Making safe drinking water available is everyone's problem, and it's a problem it will take everyone to solve," she said.

Nearly one in every six inhabitants of planet Earth -- about 1 billion people -- do not have access to clean drinking water, according to the United Nations.

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