Cyclists riding from Calgary to Vancouver to only drink water from streams, springs and rivers
Danielle Nerman | CBC News | Posted: June 20, 2016 3:47 PM | Last Updated: June 20, 2016
Wheels for Wells raises money for clean water in developing countries
You would think riding 1,000 kilometres from Vancouver to Calgary in five days is enough of a challenge.
But a group of Calgarians is upping the ante by only drinking water from natural sources they find along the way.
"From lakes and rivers and streams and natural springs," said Sarah Fillier, one of four cyclists participating in the Wheels for Wells charity ride later this week.
She said the ride is meant to "start a conversation" about the abundance of safe drinking water in Canada compared to the developing world.
"There's actually people who get water from the ground between here and Vancouver that they tap right into their house and they don't even filter it," said Fillier.
"There's over 663 million people on the planet that do not have access to clean water and we want people to start talking about that."
No cheating
Fillier said no matter how hard it gets, the cyclists participating in the ride will not buy water from convenience stores or fill up their bottles at taps along the way.
"It's not as hard as waking up in the morning … knowing you've got to walk six or seven kilometres to get water. So we're going to use that as our motivation so that we won't cheat."
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This is the fourth year of the ride. A few years ago, one of the riders got sick with giardia, a waterborne intestinal infection that causes abdominal cramps, bloating, nausea and bouts of watery diarrhea.
So Fillier says if there are any concerns about the water they collect, they'll filter it.
The group is working with World Vision to build wells in Kenya, Mauritania, Somalia and Sudan. In three years, the charity has raised over $100,000 and brought clean water to more than 50,000 people.
With files from the Calgary Eyeopener