A mystery illness has taken down Borth swimmers who have been left ‘projectile vomiting’ after their dips.

The same weekend a brown mass of discoloured water was spotted off the coast of Borth, and a pollution risk warning was issued by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) for nearby Aberystwyth South Beach.

Both Dwr Cymru/ Wales Water and NRW have since confirmed that no sewage was discharged in the area across the last week or weekend.

Tim Pryce and his wife were enjoying a dip on 14 June opposite their Borth home of 15 years, hours before they were then taken ill.

Tim said: “I had a bout of projectile vomiting on Friday around midnight.

“I’ve felt slightly nauseous since then.

“My wife went in on Friday as well and experienced nausea as well but she was more careful- she’d heard about a spill.

“When we went in I did notice the wave 'wash line' on the sand was a dirty brown colour.

“I realise now I should have kept my mouth closed in the waves!”

Other Borth residents have also reported getting ill after swimming last weekend, whilst many speculated that the brown discoloured water could be from a sewage overflow after the heavy rains last week.

However Dwr Cymru’s Sewage Overflow Map data shows the last documented overflows at the nearby Ynyslas and Clarach drain sites were on 9th and 10th April, with Aberystwyth beaches last overflow on 3rd June.

NRW states they are “confident” the discoloured water spotted on 16th was from land run-off due to heavy rain and not from sewage overflow.

They did not comment on the swimmers' illnesses.

A Borth resident who did not want to be named commented: “It doesn’t smell like the normal aroma of algae it smells like a sewage plant, especially down Aberwennol, it absolutely stinks.

“It’s too much of a coincidence that people have fallen ill, the beach stinks and a brown substance is out in the water.

“I wouldn’t advise anyone to swim in the sea anytime soon.”

Borth was only this May re-awarded Blue Flag status, an international award presented for well-managed beaches with excellent water quality and education programmes.

Across 2023 Dwr Cymru reported 43 spills in Borth, equating to 577 hours of overflow time.

Huwel Manley, NRW Duty Tactical Manager for South West Wales, said: “We received one report of discoloured water in the sea at Borth over the weekend.

“One of our officers investigated and found that some discoloured water was entering the sea at Aberystwyth Harbour, but the discolouration was passing.

“It is our understanding that there were no discharges from storm overflow discharges over the weekend associated with Dwr Cymru assets.

“The brown discolouration was most likely caused by heavy rainfall in the Rheidol and Ystwyth catchments which resulted in increasing water levels early Sunday morning causing sediment to be pushed out into the bay.

“We are confident that the discolouration was caused by sediment flowing from rivers and not through sewage discharges.”