Day Zero, the day the water stops flowing to our taps, is looming over Cape Town. Limited water resources are threatening all Capetonians. Penguins in South Africa know a thing or two about being threatened by the over-exploitation of resources they need to live - they have a crucial lesson for us:

When food is scarce, a penguin swims farther, it swims harder and it keeps doing its best until it finds food or dies trying.

A penguin never stands on the beach pointing flippers, deciding who to blame for eating all the fish - that penguin would have no prospect of finding a meal or being handed one. It would definitely die.

Like the penguins, each of us also has a choice - are we going to stand and look for blame for the current Cape Town water crisis, but achieve nothing, or are we going to swim and fight to save the last drop of water - and maybe that will be enough to survive? One thing is certain - without the willingness to change, we won't get through this.

You're challenged to #SaveLikeAPenguin:

Day Zero is coming soon - only drastic savings are enough to stop that!

Share the shower with a partner to halve water use.

Reusing your towels and linens at home and in hotels leads to big water savings!

You don’t need to waste water on your swimming pool during a drought – make like a penguin and go to the beach instead!

No need to waste water on a garden when you can be water-wise – choose locally indigenous plants, succulents and minimise your lawn. If you are lucky enough to have a wellpint - please limit your use, that water is being depleted too, but consider using it to flush your toilet.

Note the new rules for wellpoint use in the Level 6B water restrictions from next month.

Catch your shower greywater in a basin or bucket and use it to flush your toilet. Big savings!

A “slow leak” can waste over 1000L of water a year! Don’t tolerate that – get it fixed! Report burst pipes, fault meters and restriction offences to the City:

Call 0860 103 089 (choose option 2: water-related faults)

Email water@capetown.gov.za

Online through the Service Requests tool

SMS 31373 (max of 160 characters)

Whatsapp 063 407 3699

An average shower uses 22L of water per minute. Reduce wastage – keep showers under 2 minutes and add a low-flow showerhead. To keep water use to a minimum, expecially if 2 minutes is not enough for you - switch off the water and lather and then turn it back on to rinse. Only shower when necessary - aim for every second day at most.

Share the City of Cape Town’s new water map – if your friends or neighbours don’t have a green dot, help them figure out how to save water at home.

Please note that Cape Town will soon be entering Level 6B water restrictions - that's less that 50 litres per person a day. We all need to make changes if we want to overcome this disaster together. Here is the City's statement. Start using less than 50 litres now - the sooner we all start, the bigger the difference we can make.

Waddle you do when Day Zero hits Cape Town?

Feel free to share the penguin's water saving tips far and wide - the more people that save like a penguin, the better off we will all be!

Follow #SaveLikeAPenguin on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook for daily water-saving advice from the penguins of the Two Oceans Aquarium - get ready to take savings to the extreme.