World Water Day, which is held on 22 March every year, aims to bring the world’s attention to the importance of fresh water and will be celebrated by all 193 United Nation member states.

The day is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis, which has seen severe waste of water from developed countries and a lack of clean and safe water for third world countries.

World Water Day 2017 encourages people to make waves and be inspired by people who have taken action to tackle this global problem.

One of these people is Australian Matt Henricks who has spent the last two years working his way through remote African villages providing villagers with the gift of clean and disease-free water.

Matt is the founder of the Water Works Program, a corporate team building activity that allows everyday people to build water filtration units to be used by African communities during natural disasters.

“People leave our team building sessions actually stunned that they have built a fully functional water filtration system. They can’t believe the simplicity of what and how they have built this life changing apparatus. They build an emergency water system that has been specifically designed for use during natural disasters to provide clean water and reduce the spread of water borne diseases,” says Matt.

On top of providing emergency kits, the Water Works Program also provides a larger water filtration system, which is used in households, schools and health centres.

“We’ve now delivered over 1,000 water systems in Uganda and are excited to be going to Kenya for the first time in coming months. Some of the people that receive our water systems will taste genuinely clean and safe water for the first time in their lives which is really very exciting and humbling,” says Matt.