Cyclists riding from Calgary to Vancouver to only drink water from streams, springs and rivers

You would thinkriding 1,000 kilometresfrom 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 lakesand rivers and streams and natural springs," said Sarah Fillier, one of four cyclists participating in theWheels for Wellscharity 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 theride will not buy water from convenience stores or fill up their bottles attaps 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 waterborneintestinal infection that causesabdominal cramps, bloating, nausea and bouts of watery diarrhea.

So Fillier saysif there are any concerns about the water theycollect, they'llfilter it.

The group is working with World Vision to build wells inKenya, 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