Catastrophe: Wildlife officials Henk Louw and Maya Stauch collect dead fish in a Cape estuary, where more than 20 tons of fish have died so far. Photo: Rogan Ward, Cape Argus

The cost of 30 years of pollution and other environmental abuse of the Rietvlei Wetland Reserve is 80 tons of dead fish, perhaps more, say the city of Cape Town’s environmental managers.

The city has been cleaning up at this popular recreational water body for two days. It is a race against time to collect the dead fish before they decompose and become a serious health risk to humans.

Managers say the long-term ecological impacts of the mass die-off that apparently started on Christmas Day are, as yet, unknown and unquantifiable, but they will be serious… Cape Argus