Today I ran through a torrential downpour. It was raining so hard there were areas on the road with 6 inches of standing (rushing, actually) water. Only 20 minutes later, the sun was shining and the storm had passed.

Besides adding some excitement to my run through the Czech countryside, this short but powerful deluge also made me think about the extremely localized nature of water-related issues. A village in southern Morocco may face recurring drought, with its inhabitants regularly forced to walk 3 hours per day to fetch drinking water, while the inhabitants of the city of Marrakesh, only a few hours away, can simply turn on the tap. The localized nature of water issues is one of the reasons there is a paucity of media coverage of the 2.2 million people that die each year because they lack safe drinking water.

When we spread the BPR message of safe drinking water, people often ask why they hear more about other issues like HIV/AIDS, climate change, and others, as compared to water. Part of the reason is because a drought in rural China will not affect the US economy; whereas, if carbon emissions in China and India are doubled (which would still leave them at a fraction of the per capita emissions of the US), the entire world would see even more drastic changes in climate. Most people are shocked to find out that more children die in Africa from preventable waterborne diseases than from AIDS, malaria, war, and accidents combined.