Fake news about water disaster in Norway

A fabricated news story about a water disaster that allegedly affects Oslo’s drinking water is being spread via X and Telegram. The news of an ecological disaster in Nitelva, a river that flows into Lake Øyren east of Oslo, is gaining attention in Norway. It allegedly involves sky-high levels of toxins and mass deaths of fish in the river. Experts believe it is a Russian attempt at disinformation.

Norwegian experts identify reports of a Norwegian water disaster as a Russian influence campaign. This is reported by the Norwegian Newspaper Dagbladet. In early June, a news story began to appear on the social media platforms X and Telegram. The news was about the release of heavy water, deuterium oxide and a collapsing fish population in the Nitelva. Birds and mammals in the area are said to have shown signs of neurological damage. The pollution is said to soon threaten the drinking water in Lilleström, Rælingen and Oslo, it was reported. In reality, Oslo’s water supply has no contact with the Nitelva.

False references

The laboratory company ALS Laboratory Group has been referenced in the fake news, something the company strongly objected to in a press release. “The article refers to independent tests and statements from ALS, but ALS Laboratory Group Norway AS has never commented on this. We have also not tested deuterium in Nitelva or in other samples because these are analyses we do not offer. ALS would like to strongly refute the claims and quotes that can be related to our laboratory in the article. We take very seriously the fact that our professional knowledge and our employees are being abused in this way.”

Disinformation source

The news comes from a website that claims to belong to a non-profit organization, the Nature Defense Council (NDC), and is illustrated with video clips and pictures of dead fish. Dagbladet can show that the video comes from an incident in Australia in 2019. The page has been widely circulated during the summer. Dagbladet can show that all information about the contamination is false and that the organization NDC does not appear to exist. Norwegian experts at the Norwegian Defence Research Institute (FFI) and the Gnida Project, which monitors Russian influence operations in Europe, believe that the incident appears to be a Russian influence operation. ‘It is not surprising. We have seen this happen in many countries. It is often difficult to say exactly why they do it, but you can see it as part of a larger operation against the West, where Norway is a target’, says Eskil Grejndahl Sivertsen at FFI to Dagbladet.

This article was published first on the Swedish platform for water professionals cirkulation.se