A quiet neighbourhood in the Swansea Valley has been disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious sulphurous spring which has ended up turning a front garden into something resembling a swimming pool.
Alun Lewis has lived at his home in Ynysydarren Road, Ystalyfera, for 40 years without an issue.
Then something quite unexpected happened one morning.
He said: "I got up at half five, and opened the door to see a river of water coming down the side of the house.
"We thought a pipe had burst and had to block the water from coming into the house with towels and blankets, and called the water board."
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But it wasn't anything to do with Welsh Water.
"They said it wasn't them, and the sewerage company said it wasn't them, and now the Coal Authority is investigating to see if it might be from an 1870s mine shaft across the road," added Mr Lewis.
"The water might have made its way to the weakest point, which happened to be in our front garden."
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He said that while the water was being drained away, his son dug about seven feet down to try to see what the cause might be.
"He found nothing, so we don't know what is causing it."
Since then, the hole has quickly filled up, leaving him with an impromptu and unwanted water feature.
"There's no damage to the house, thankfully, but the water is causing other problems.
"It's gone into the road which has had to be blocked off, so we're down to single file, and the water smells like sulphur, so the neighbours have been complaining about the smell."
He said: "We never expected something like this to happen, we've been here forty years with no problems.
"The day before my wife was planting flowers there, and now they're gone, ruined."
A spokesperson for the Coal Authority said investigations into the incident were still ongoing.
She added: “We were contacted initially by Neath Port Talbot Council about the water coming out of the site and we are now carrying out investigations to determine the cause.
“If these investigations conclude that it is a result of historical coal mine workings, we will undertake ground remediation work to make the area safe.”
