Sanlam/YouTube
The logo of Cape Town's "2-minute Shower Songs" album.
- Cape Town, South Africa, is at risk of running out of water.
- The government has imposed severe restrictions to conserve supplies - including recommending showers that last just 2 minutes.
- Famous South African artists are trying to help, by recording sped-up tracks for people to time their showers to.
- You can listen to them below.
Cape Town, the first major city on earth to be faced with running out of water, has devised a musical solution for its impending crisis.
City authorities teamed up with South African pop stars to launch an album of sped-up hits designed to help people save water by taking shorter showers.
Cape Town has been going through three years of persistent drought - one of the worst in its history. The government warns that there will be a date in 2018, known as "Day Zero," on which the city will run out of water.
To combat that, ten famous South African artists last year produced shower songs lasting exactly 120 seconds to make sure people shower for two minutes or less.
The "2-Minute Shower Songs" album, sponsored by the Cape Town government and finance firm Sanlam, released last November as efforts were building to push back the date at which water reserves will run dry.
You can listen to it here:
All the songs in the album are sped-up versions of the artists' existing songs. Some of the remixes now reference saving water.
South African artist Youngsta raps in his remix of "Wes Kaap": "You need to double check first that you turned off the tap."
The sped-up songs "capture the sense of urgency" around the risk of drought, the creative agency behind the campaign told Quartz.
Sanlam/YouTube
South African rapper Kwesta recording a song for the "2-Minute Shower Songs" album.
"Day Zero," the date Cape Town will run out of water, is currently set at July 9, 2018. Most of the city's taps are then due to be be turned off and around 20,000 people would have to queue for their water.
The date for Day Zero has been moved back several times (it was initially in April), which Cape Town says is a sign that its strategy is starting to work.
The government has urged citizens to limit their water usage to 50 litres per day. A five-minute shower uses around 45 litres, while taking two minutes uses less than 20.
To meet the challenge, residents have been storing water in jugs and collecting free water from local breweries.
Associated Press
People queue to collect water from a natural spring outlet in the South African Breweries in Cape Town, Tuesday Jan. 23, 2018. Tourists in the city famously perched near two oceans are being asked to flush the toilet as little as possible and swim in the ocean instead of pools "and maybe even spare yourself a shower", as a harsh drought may force South Africa's showcase city to turn off most taps.
The government is worried that if people can't conserve enough water to avoid the shutoff, there will be anarchy in the city, which is home to 4 million people.
Helen Zille, the premier of the Western Cape province, said earlier this year that the challenge faced by the city "exceeds anything a major city has had to face anywhere in the world since the Second World War or 9/11."